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1930s Hollywood, You Ain’t Heard Nothin' Yet!
If time travel allowed one experience back to a chosen era of the cinematic timeline, hands down it would be the 1930s Golden Age Hollywood. A tour down the foundation of American cinema would begin at the gates of Hollywood. Behold the land where dreams are said to come true, where you might run into the dazzling stars or possibly become one yourself. Taking a turn into the studios, the real magic lies in the hands of bustling film crews preparing for the next motion picture masterpiece. Then hurry to the nearest movie theater just before the latest feature begins. Buy a double bill, pick a seat, get comfortable, and listen up for what's about to light up the Great Depression. As the music drops and the actor starts to sing, this is the moment that would mesmerize every cinephile who has just witnessed cinema's phenomenal transition from silent to talkies. Oh but wait, the studio moguls were equally mesmerized by the enormous profits that Talkies would potentially generate. Ever since The Jazz Singer was received with sensation in 1927, technicians were quickly hired and theaters fully equipped, the studios made sure every aspect of production, distribution and exhibition was ready to bring in the big bucks. To Hollywood, movie-making was an industry, it was simply an entertainment product manufactured by a production line. Skilled workers took on the roles of producers, directors, cinematographers, actors, and many more, experimented with the new sound technology, dedicated to whatever captures the audience's interest, while infusing their unique artistic intuitives. It was a decade marked by innovation that contributed greatly to consolidating contemporary film industry practices, while creating numerous classics that remain refreshing to the 21st century eye. Program Adjustments 【Changes concerning the film rating】(updated 2024/09/02) • Baby Face：P → PG12 -
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Wandering Hearts: Encounters of the Voyagers
Cinema's genesis is intertwined with travel. The Lumière brothers' 1896 short film, "Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat," showcased the sensory impact of kinetic energy and the bustling travelers at a train station on screen. Early filmmakers soon mounted cameras on moving locomotives, creating "phantom ride" films which simulate subjective experience of "moving landscapes" when traveling on a train. Scholars like Tom Gunning have reminded us that the rise of modernity is epitomized by transportation, tourism industry, and moving images, which often reflect the colonizers' desire to assimilate and possess exotic landscapes. Giuliana Bruno further points out that film not only captures physical spaces as motion pictures, but shapes collective memory and sensory pathways in its "emotional mapping." As film unfolds in travel and culminates in desire, this program attempts to explore how travel experiences and tourist landscapes in films become catalysts for the characters' romantic emotions and transformations. Intimate Strangers in City Landscapes Walter Benjamin, when writing about the flâneur, likened the fragmented sensory experiences in modern metropolises to film montage. The city itself is a giant phantasmagoria, with the tourist's rapid visual impressions akin to jump cuts across times and spaces that connect memories and fantasies. Benjamin believed that the flâneur's pleasure came from "chance encounters" with the unknown. Whether it's the "meet-cute" scenarios in Hollywood romcoms or the spontaneous filming in real Parisian streets in the French New Wave works, these films capture the magic of romantic encounters in scenic landscapes, making us fall head over heels in love. Victoria Nelson uses the term "psychotopography" to describe how external landscapes reflect the inner psyche of the authors or characters. In Love at Sea, the lovers' anguish in separation is mirrored in their sensory experiences of the citiscapes when walking in Paris and Brest. In Journey to Italy, the heroine's exploration of Pompeii's ruins evokes memories of a deceased lover and her troubled marriage, yet ultimately confirms the couple's enduring love amid the city's chaotic energy. Time as a Hymn to Love: The Road Not Taken Éric Rohmer, known for his philosophical take on romantic cinema, once said that people "have time to reassess their lives" when on vacation, where they can reflect on desires and regrets in their transient life. In Before Sunrise, the protagonist quotes W.H. Auden's poem "As I Walked Out One Evening" to illuminate the inevitability of the ending of the lovers' night destined by time. As Celine, the heroine, says, "It's like our time together is just ours. It's our own creation." The entire film is a "stolen time," as transitory as the impressionist painting the couple witnesses on the street in Vienna. In travel romance films, time often signifies a predetermined closure. As the clock strikes, the carriages metaphorically turn back into pumpkins, leaving lovers with regrets over missed opportunities or wistful memories. Yet, the curated films serve as perfect time machines, juxtaposing comparable relationships across different journeys, exhibiting captivating intertextuality among diverse narratives, and mirroring the complex tension between fantasy and reality. These films not only reenact the allure of romantic encounters, but prompt reflection on the paths we have taken or deserted, and the companions who have joined or departed from our lives. Program Adjustments 【Changes concerning the film rating】(updated 2024/07/31) • Tokyo Pop：PG12 → PG15• Two for the Road：G → P -
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Scared to Death
During the sweltering summer, telling ghost stories and holding courage-testing events at night is a tradition to cool down by getting chills from fear. In the seventh month of the lunar calendar, TFAI selects three Asian horror films from Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Japan, inviting audiences to cool off with these chilling tales. The Dead and the Deadly, set in the late Qing Dynasty, showcases Maoshan sorcery, funeral rites, and cultural practices, with themes of greed and selflessness. The Bride explores ghost marriage, a custom originating from China's Shang Dynasty, and also seen in Taiwan, Korea, Southeast Asia, and Europe. Taiwan director Yao Feng-pan's The Ghost (1976) centers on the same practice. The Bride delves into fate and reincarnation, highlighting themes of empathy and redemption. It Comes, inspired by demon legends from Japan's Mie Prefecture, uses folklore, talismans, shamanic prayers, and purification rituals to depict the consequences of parental selfishness, as well as the collective effort to protect innocent life amidst fear of the unknown. Ghosts and spirits roam the night, but human obsessions are more compelling in these ghost stories, which can often in turn evoke human kindness. In this scorching summer, TFAI offers a chilling experience that goes beyond strong air conditioning. Program Adjustments 【Changes concerning the film rating】(updated 2024/07/31) • The Dead and the Deadly：G → PG12 -
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Through Her Vision: New Cinema Re-Imagined
Through Her Vision: New Cinema Re-Imagined seeks to explore the important cultural event of Taiwan New Cinema from a fresh perspective ― her perspective. Not only does this continue the Taiwan New Cinema Revisited retrospective in 2022, but it also reinvestigates New Cinema as an "ever-flowing field of energy." It shifts the focus towards women both in front and behind the camera, setting off on a journey through their films and the works of filmmakers with diverse gender identities to reveal the multiple narratives of New Cinema. In Taiwan New Cinema, women have a covert yet critical presence. With the rise of women's self-awareness and the feminist movement in the 1980s, and despite New Cinema being male-dominated, films began to present a more diverse exploration of female imagery, giving an impression of progressiveness. However, the industry during the New Cinema era still upheld traditional and stereotypical structures, with female filmmakers struggling to gain due recognition, and the discourse on their contributions to New Cinema remaining sparse. Moreover, many women who went abroad to study film returned to Taiwan only to encounter setbacks. Some were left with unfulfilled cinematic dreams, while others had delayed their film practices. Some works, such as documentaries and experimental films, didn't fit into the frame of New Cinema. Even though they were often ignored in the discourse of New Cinema, their creative visions shed light on a different aspect of the time. Therefore, we have grouped 29 films into two sections: "Her in New Cinema" and "Her Beyond New Cinema." The former explores the contributions of women in various roles within New Cinema, such as director Sylvia Chang, actress Yang Li-yin, writer/screenwriter Chu Tien-wen, and assistant director Hsu Shu-chen, hoping to create new focal points in the audience's viewing experience and encourage a rethinking of the collective and collaborative nature of filmmaking. The latter showcases filmmakers and works from the 1980s and 1990s that were produced outside the framework of Taiwan New Cinema, such as Claire Pei's The Toy Gun (1981) and Cheang Shu-lea's Fresh Kill (1994), depicting another imagination of film practice. The opening event will feature a special screening of the digitally restored The Woman of Wrath (1984), which holds symbolic significance. This film not only delves into female oppression but is also one of the representative works of literary adaptations by female writers from the New Cinema period. Additionally, the extended exhibition displays documents and artifacts related to these films and filmmakers, offering an in-depth opportunity to understand the stories behind New Cinema and the female filmmakers' contributions. Through this special topic, we aspire for the audience not only to rediscover the rich layers of New Cinema but also to feel the profound influence of female filmmakers on Taiwan's cinema and culture. The program title was chosen as "Her" rather than "Their" to acknowledge that, unlike their male peers in New Cinema, these individuals were unable to form a collective force and a mutual community at the time. It also aims to emphasize an individual perspective, re-examining New Cinema to reveal each one's life journey and cinematic vision, thereby reconstructing another narrative and reimagining New Cinema. • Supported by Program Adjustments 【Brochure Errata】 • p.11、p.26, Yours and Mine (1997) running time 118min→114min. 【Post-screening Q&A Adjustments】(updated 2024/06/14) • 6/29 The QA guest of The Lady Avenger changed from director YANG Chia-yun to HOU Chi-jan, director of Taiwan Black Movies. 【Changes concerning the film rating】(updated 2024/05/30) • The Woman of Wrath (Restored)：PG12 → PG15• A Summer At Grandpa's：G → P• Out of the Blue (Restored)：G → P• Yours and Mine：P → PG12• Autumn Tempest：PG12 → PG15• The Toy Gun：P → PG12• Her Beyond New Cinema Shorts 1：G → P• Her Beyond New Cinema Shorts 3：P → PG12 -
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Sonic Odyssey: Jazz Riot
In The Jazz Singer (1927), a synchronized piano performance, shattered silence within theaters, marking the start of sound films. Jazz lived on and inspired numerous cinema classics, echoing in theaters. Join us in "Sonic Odyssey" as we explore jazzy wonders. With Dolby Atmos® surround sound, immerse yourself in jazz's captivating realm where blue notes intoxicate the soul. -
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14th Taiwan International Documentary Festival
The Taiwan International Documentary Festival (TIDF) proudly announces its complete lineup for the 14th edition, featuring almost 140 documentaries, over 200 screenings and a variety of related events. Held from May 10 to May 19, 2024, in various venues in Taipei and New Taipei City, audiences will have the opportunity to experience a diverse selection of documentary cinema from around the globe. Various programmes are presented in the 14th iteration of the festival. In addition to the three main competitions, Asian Vision, International, and Taiwan Competition, the Filmmakers in Focus | Double Angles from Slovakia: Peter Kerekes & Viera Čákanyová, will showcase a curated selection of 13 classic works by the two filmmakers. TIDF embarks on its first-ever collaboration with an international film festival, the Ukrainian Docudays UA International Human Rights Films Festival, the programme "Exchange｜Decade in Blue and Yellow: Ukrainian Documentaries" shedding light on the situation in Ukraine through documentary filmmaking. Other highlights of the festival include the platform "Salute! Chinese Independent Documentaries," showcasing nine compelling films from Hong Kong and China under the theme "Cinema Protects Memories." Moreover, the festival's focus programme "Metaphors of the Times: The Reality Named Myanmar" shines a spotlight on Myanmar, highlighting its vibrant creative scene thriving amidst challenging political circumstances. Finally, "Special Presentations" feature works from a jury member and the recipient of the Outstanding Contribution Award, and directors in memoriam. Alongside film screenings and post-screening discussions, attendees can engage in lectures, performances, and extensive exhibitions, all geared towards expanding the audience's perception of documentaries through a rich and diverse array of content. Shortlists for the competitions were announced on February 19th, with more program details to be gradually revealed. Please stay tuned to the TIDF official website, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram for more information. 2024 TIDF Brochure Errata & Adjustments：https://www.tidf.org.tw/en/news/134758 -
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Re-encounter: TIDF Selections
Founded in 1998 and incorporated under the TFAI since 2013, the Taiwan International Documentary Festival (TIDF) has evolved into a global documentary film hub over two decades. TIDF's curatorial core, "Re-encounter Reality," underscores its commitment to freedom, creativity, and interdisciplinary exploration. It attracts submissions from filmmakers worldwide and nurtures a community of documentary cinephiles and filmmakers in Taiwan. This program, a collaboration between TIDF and TFAI's Department of Program, carefully curates six distinguished films from past editions, along with a selection of acclaimed Taiwanese experimental shorts. Audiences will have the opportunity to experience these cinematic gems on the screen this May, enjoying a retrospective glimpse into TIDF's rich history and contemporary relevance. -
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Fatal & Fallen: The Ultra Bad Woman as Techno-Mystic Weapon
Fatal & Fallen unearths the trope of the deadly, deranged and delinquent woman pictured in East Asian exploitation, xianxia , sci-fi and arthouse films. In the 1st and 2nd Editions, the program delved into the underworlds such as prisons, brothels, and homes as sites of crime, sexual desire and revenge across Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan. Indexing on the region's socio-political context when years of post-war depression, authoritarian regimes, foreign military rule, Cold War and rapid industrialization found an outlet in extreme and misogynistic cinematic imagery. Against this backdrop, Fatal & Fallen uncovers the dynamics of power and desire through the bleak yet charged territories of exploitation films. While the preceding Editions explored the entangled genres of Japan's pinku eiga, Taiwan's Black Movies, Hong Kong's Girls with Guns and South-Korea's thriller and Hostess films, this 3rd Edition opens the program up the technomystical paradigm of cinema.Dominant images of technology in cinema have historically been casted through an industrial and sterile lens, from the sprawling early sci-fi opera Metropolis (1927) to the cyberpunk title Tetsuo: The Iron Man (1989), charting the descent of a metal fetishist transforming into pure iron. As visions of machines in sci-fi films further entrenched binaries such as emotion//logic, sentience//incognisance or flesh//mechanical, the mystification of technology has become an utmost heresy in mass culture. This neo-natal neutering of a machine eros at the onset has been further cemented by the othering, alienation and material sterility in the sci-fi canon. Meanwhile, the myth of the machine continues to create techno-solutionist visions of a starry-eyed future of futile automation. Silicon Valley's innovators are stuck in a navel-gazing bind of lore-crafting, where specters of western enlightenment continue to propel projections of the savior in the machine. On the polarizing end, cataclysmic clouds pregnant with fear mongering surrounding emerging technologies such as generative AI, blockchain and the Internet of Things continue to fuel techno-anxieties. Paralyzed by paranoia and dripping with a rhetoric of annihilation, the doomerist worldview isn't a productive alternative either.In an acutely frenetic present, Fatal & Fallen: The Ultra Bad Woman as Techno-Mystic Weapon is a conjuring act to unravel from the technological double bind to revel in a latent space ― amidst magic and machine, arcana and effability. As cultural critic Erik Davis invoked at the dawn of the new millennium, "magic is technology's unconscious, its own arational spell. Our modern technological world is not nature, but augmented nature, super-nature." As such, the rift between magick and technik orbits are not polarizing ends, but rather two interchangeable and symbiotic vectors of the same axis. Moreover, the concept of a "super-nature" ― or excess of the divine ― can be seen through the ever evolving legacy of technologies. Ricocheting betwixt ancient to alien, devices morph from sigil to code; oracle bone to predictive models; sundial to atomic clocks. These devices may diverge across eons and cultural contexts, but ultimately converge because they are powered from the same source ― the desire for connectivity.The films encompass a myriad of body techniques ranging from kung fu and ninjutsu to telekinesis and transfiguration. The use of martial arts in the wuxia and xianxia genre is referred to as a technology of the self, which was used as a strategy to build national character and magnify self worth in post WW2 China. Not just used for tactical means, the mystical impulse of an inexplicable desire to connect to a source origin uncloaks how characters in the films are at heart, energetic bodies and activated vectors searching for release, retrieval, or revenge. While not all titles in Fatal & Fallen are taxonomically viewed as xianxia or wuxia under the cinema canon, the concept of xiuzhen (immortality cultivation) ― underpins the program's intent of alchemizing a macrocosm that zaps varying iterations of body techniks with an animistic charge. Calling forth the words of religious literary scholar Zhange Ni, xiuzhen "does not escape but engages with the dazzling reality of digital technology, neoliberal governance and global capitalism. In this fantastic world, the divide of magic and science breaks down; religion, defined not by faith but embodied practice."Fatal & Fallen beckons the mystical impulse to engage in various somatic rituals and cybernetic communions. Across network cables and legendary blades, characters in the films mold and transmute energy, shaping it at their will, or at times, to their horror. The Thrilling Sword' s sorceress summons dark magic with hand seals to impale chaos for control, a band of women fighters in The Challenge of the Lady Ninja sparks revenge warfare. In other vignettes, the serpent sisters of Green Snake and the teenage diver in August in the Water tap into energetic potholes to open up new spaces of potentiality, thwarting psychogeographies of the mortal world. Mariko Mori's channeling of deities in Kumano and Prayer of the Priestess reverberates prayers of harmony, bending balance back to the Anthropocene. Bodies turn into energetic circuits in I Love Maria and The Cave of the Silken Web, where corporeal vessels become ephemeral beacons of electricity striking from the heavens. In the surreal universe of Pistol Opera, female assassins take on bodies of bullets, cutting through delusions with steel-like precision. Sisters are bequeathed god-like status with a surveillance network in So Close, while I'm a Cyborg, But That's OK exalts a yearning for a cyborgian existence. Re:Mazu: Iterations of Devotion halts idolatry in its tracks, reprogramming sea goddess Mazu towards radical queerness.Across the titles in Fatal & Fallen, the body becomes a channeling totem, a porous vessel and conduit of entropy and creation. The program addresses how the female body ― across various environments and emergencies ― becomes a site of discipline, enchantment, titillation and retrieval to manifest agendas from the cosmic to hyper-real. In ritual and protocol, ceremony and computation, Fatal & Fallen summons the netherworld of technological sublime, traversing celestial data streams where gadgets and incantations alike are used as weapons against obliteration. Curated byJade Barget Jade Barget is a curator based in Paris and Berlin investigating atmospheric and ecosystemic imaginaries after nature. She recently curated performative events at Espace Niemeyer, Paris; soft power, Berlin; exhibition programs at Frac Île-de-France; and was part of the curatorial team of transmediale, Berlin, for the last three editions of the festival.Elizabeth Gabrielle Lee Elizabeth Gabrielle Lee is an interdisciplinary practitioner who works between visual art, cultural research and education. Her work encounters themes of soft histories, sensuous and sacred ecologies, salvage fiction and mechanics of control. She is a Lecturer in Creative Direction at London College of Fashion.XING is a research and curatorial platform championing visual art practices from East Asia, Southeast Asia and its diaspora. Acknowledgement: Fatal & Fallen was first presented at Singapore's Asian Film Archive in the context of their Re:frame series from September – October 2021. Its second iteration was presented at bi'bak's Sinema Transtopia program between May – June 2022. Special Thanks to Asian Film Archive -
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TFAI 46th Anniversary
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VR360: Between Virtual and Reality
04.04-04.07 THU-SUN / 04.12-04.28 FRI-SUN｜1F, TFAI Virtual Reality (VR) utilizes computer simulation to craft three-dimensional virtual environments for immersive physical experiences. The viewing of VR works marks a shift from the collective setting of traditional cinema to a private realm of sensory entertainment. Audiences can freely select their viewing angle, creating singular moments of visions, thoughts, and feelings unique to each individual. The genuine emotions experienced in VR can resonate beyond the digital realm, transforming it from mere technological imagery into a site of meaningful engagement and infinite possibilities, where we witness the evolution of VR. Following the debut VR program The Man Who Couldn't Leave in 2023, TFAI selects five other panoramic films shot with 360-degree cameras or multi-camera setups on this occasion, allowing audiences to experience immersive 360-degree viewing with VR headsets. The lineup comprises: Your Spiritual Temple Sucks, featuring a dual-perspective narrative; Home, captured from a subjective point of view; Look at Me, presented from a third-person perspective; In the Mist, where viewers are submerged physically in a different world; and The Reflected City, an animation production. These films, spanning from 2017 to 2022, illustrate Taiwan filmmakers' exploration of narrative approaches and spatial creations driven by technological advancements in the VR 360 format, leaving a significant mark on the evolution of the global VR creation scene and opening up new possibilities. Special Thanks to KAOHSIUNG VR FILM LAB -
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Happy Children' s Day!
The spirit of Children's Day is to cherish the innocence and wonder that only children have before entering adulthood. Their eyes express endless curiosity, consistently searching for fresh experiences, so then what could satisfy their wildest desires more, than a visit to the movies where anything, and everything is possible? Dedicated to all the kids and inner childs, three eccentric titles are here to stir up the fun of this special day; while The Diary of Paulina P. may provide inspiration for solving all the little life problems, The Wizard of Oz shall become a live-action storybook escape to a fantastic world, and only Bugsy Malone can prove that real criminals are never about size. ※ Traditional Chinese subtitles of the screenings do not include Zhuyin nor Chinese dubbing. Recommended for ages eight and above due to subtitle reading capability. ※ All screenings in this section welcome all ages and are family friendly. There may be children speaking or moving around occasionally. Thank you for your understanding and tolerance.