In celebration of International Museum Day Taiwan Film & Audiovisual Institute makes thousands of Taiwan Film Culture Company newsreels available to the public free of charge
Taiwan Film & Audiovisual Institute (TFAI) made an important announcement! To celebrate International Museum Day on May 18 and to realize access to culture, TFAI released the Taiwan Film Culture Company (TFCC) newsreels on TFAI Open Museum website, encouraging people to use them in digital exhibitions, media materials, research, and creation. Thousands of precious newsreels that documented the history of Taiwan are now available for downloading and using free of charge.
Louis C. Lee, the CEO of TFAI, expressed, “Produced by Taiwan Film Culture Company run by the Taiwan Provincial Information Office, the content of these newsreels shows a wide range of subjects, including public health education, introduction to the central and regional construction projects, regional celebrations and sports games; they recorded every stage in the democratic, cultural, and industrial development of the country and proved to be our precious cultural memories. Since it is TFAI’s mission to preserve and promote our cultural memories, we choose to release these valuable historical materials to the public on International Museum Day; it is hoped that through looking back at these newsreels, we will not only understand better but identify with our culture and the land we live in.”
In 2022, the Taiwan Film Culture Company newsreels and the related cultural assets were selected for the “3rd Memory of the World - National Registers of Taiwan” held by the Bureau of Cultural Heritage, the Ministry of Culture. Undoubtedly, these newsreels are the most valuable films that documented Taiwan from the 1950s to the 1980s. Before the prevalence of television, these newsreels were shown in between screenings in the movie theaters, but they were gradually phased out when television became widely available and then the newsreels were broadcast on television. From this year onwards, TFAI will release these precious videos in stages. On May 18, more than two thousand newsreels made between 1946 and 1969 were released online, and everyone is invited to look back at the history of Taiwan.
Lee further expressed that these Taiwan Film Culture Company newsreels nostalgically recorded the modest streetscape and people’s lives in Taiwan almost seventy years ago, and these images could be used in a broad range of creative works, including the feature documentary, Kam Loo Tsui, which is scheduled to be completed in 2024, the VR film, The Theatre & I, directed by Lai Kuan-yuan and various in-depth media reports. This year in “Jamming with Archive: Re-coding” at Taiwan International Documentary Festival (TIDF), the artists used thousands of Taiwan Film Culture Company newsreels and employed several methods, including real-time computing, open-source software, on-site sensing, and machine learning to experiment and transform the materials, re-arranging the historical memories of Taiwan. Meanwhile, to re-enact how these newsreels were shown in the past, from the end of May, a selection of newsreels will be shown at the TFAI theaters before each screening, allowing the audience to relive the cinema experience in the old days.
To enrich the historical account of Taiwanese audiovisual industry, TFAI has been systematically collecting the oral histories of film, television, and radio since 2018; we hope that by combining the memories of the veterans, who worked in various fields and documenting the events they witnessed in history, we will be able to unveil these previously unknown personal viewpoints to the public. On International Museum Day, up to six hundred minutes of oral history interview videos were available online. Regarding television, we see veterans, including Betty Pai, who was hailed as the most beautiful host, Tien Wen-chung, Liao Chiung-chih and Si Ma Yu-chiao, talking about how those programs of different genres were made at the Taiwan Television (TTV). As for radio, we hear the founding members of Taiwan New Telecommunication (TNT) talking about how the intellectuals fought against the authoritarian regime at that time through an underground radio station. In terms of film, we meet the heavyweight filmmakers in Taiwanese-language cinema such as Sha Yung-fong of Union Motion Picture Company, who was a staunch advocate for cultural heritage preservation, as well as directors Lin Fu-ti and Tsai Yang-ming.
International Museum Day is set on May 18 by the International Council of Museums in the hope of reawakening people’s interest in the museums around the world and the cultural affairs. In response to “Museums for Education and Research”, the theme of the International Museum Day 2024, TFAI released these videos on TFAI Open Museum website. While promoting access to culture, improving the research in audiovisual heritage, increasing the use of these materials in education and raising public awareness of these issues, TFAI turns the cross-generational cultural memories into a bridge that connects people’s emotions.
TFAI Open Museum: https://tfai.openmuseum.tw
Caption 1: To celebrate International Museum Day on May 18 and to realize access to culture, TFAI released the TFCC newsreels and oral history interview videos on the TFAI Open Museum website. Thousands of precious videos about the history of Taiwan are available free of charge. (by courtesy of TFAI)
Caption 2: The content of the TFCC newsreels includes public health education, introduction to the central and regional construction projects, regional celebrations and sports games. Photo: Opening of Lux Cinema in Wuchang Street in Ximending, Taipei on August 2, 1964. (by courtesy of TFAI)
Caption 3: From this year onwards, TFAI will release the precious videos that documented Taiwan from the 1950s to the 1980s in stages. On May 18, more than two thousand TFCC newsreels were released online, and everyone is invited to look back at the history of Taiwan. Photo: Japanese POWs and expatriates in Taiwan being deported back to Japan. In 1945, after Japan surrendered to the Allies, the Japanese POWs and expatriates in Taiwan were deported back to Japan in batches. This scene was re-enacted in the film, Cape No. 7, which is set against the backdrop of this historical event. (by courtesy of TFAI)
Caption 4: TFCC newsreels documented the modest streetscape and people’s lives in Taiwan seventy years ago. Photo: Workers making “Lucky Super Cyle” bicycles manufactured by Cheng-chung Bicycles. It recorded the flourishing bicycle industry in Taiwan at that time. (by courtesy of TFAI)
Caption 5: The TIDF 2024 launched “Jamming with Archive: Re-coding” in which the artists used thousands of TFCC newsreels and employed several methods, including real-time computing, open-source software, on-site sensing, and machine learning to experiment and transform the materials, re-arranging the historical memories of Taiwan. (by courtesy of TIDF)
Caption 6: To enrich the historical account of Taiwanese audiovisual industry, TFAI has been systematically collecting oral histories of film, television and radio since 2018. On International Museum Day, 600 minutes of oral history interview videos were uploaded online. Photo: The “most beautiful host” Betty Pai in one of the oral history interviews. (by courtesy of TFAI)
Caption 7: International Museum Day is set on May 18 in the hope of reawakening people’s interest in the museums around the world and cultural affairs. In response to this year’s theme, “Museums for Education and Research,” TFAI released video data on TFAI Open Museum website, which included the oral history of Taiwanese audiovisual industry. Photo: Tsai Yang-ming, the renowned director in Taiwanese-language cinema, in one of the oral history interviews. (by courtesy of TFAI)
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