The Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Brisbane in collaboration with the University of Queensland are pleased to announce that “2017 Taiwan Film Festival” will be held on 13-14 October in Brisbane.
This two-day film festival will feature the screening of eight award-winning films directed by young aspiring film-makers from Taiwan and will be officially opened on 13th October at 09:30 am at Cinema 2, Schonell Theatre of University of Queensland’s St Lucia campus. A brief ceremony to acknowledge the festivity will be made by the event organizers and VIPs before the opening film “Kano” is screened.
“Kano” tells a story about the struggle and triumph of a high school baseball team made up of both Taiwanese and Japanese students from a rural township in southern Taiwan during the period of Japanese colonial rule. Team “Kano” braves hurt and humiliation and evolved eventually to claim victory at the annual Japanese high-school championships in 1931.
The six documentaries which will be shown afterwards include “Viva Tonal” (跳舞時代) that tells about Taiwan's "Dance Age" during 1920-1945, a paradoxical time when the island's occupation by Japan also helped produce a youth culture and a measure of artistic freedom.
“Hebei Taipei” (河北台北) tells the story of a former Nationalist soldier whose family broke apart during the Chinese civil war in the 1940s. The Chinese Communist rebellion brought him from Hebei Province in China to Taipei, Taiwan, a place where he spent six decades to fit in following Nationalist’s defeat in its warfare against the Communists.
“The Priestess Walks Alone” (我和我的T媽媽)is about a Taiwanese woman who is a mother, a grandmother, and a lesbian at the same time. How she copes with her own bitter emotions and difficult relations with others, especially one with her own daughter, might reflect a world quite different from the heterosexuals in nowadays Taiwan.
“Absent without Leave” (不即不離) traces the personal anecdote which becomes an act of mining collective history relating to the Malayan Communists in the struggle against western colonialism.
“Tuvalu” (沈沒之島) records how islanders in this remote Pacific nation of 26 square kilometers cope with the issue of global warming, when it could possibly be submerged once the sea level rises.
“Jade Miners” (挖玉石的人) reveals a story of Burmese workers who flocked to Myanmar's war-torn Kachin State to dig illegally for jade and risk their own lives in order to find a piece of valuable jade that would transform their lives.
“Three Times” (最好的時光) is directed by the worldly renowned film director Hou Hsiao-Hsien. It features three chronologically separate stories of love which showcase the evolution of the gender issues set in 1911, 1966 and 2005.
Along with the film screenings, a forum will be convened to discuss the key interests related from both historical and political perspectives by Australian academics including Dr. John Fitzgerald of the Australian Academy of the Humanities, Drs. Patrick Jory, Morris Low and Mei-fen Kuo of School of Historical and Philosophical Inquiry of University of Queensland, and Professor Emeritus Chiou Chwei-Liang of University of Queensland.
This film festival is free of charge and offers a rare chance for viewers to learn a wide variety of issues ranging from gender and LGBT rights; migration and cultural assimilation; colonialism and ideological conflicts; and poverty and human struggles facing Taiwan and its Asian neighbors. The event organizers expect a great turnout and encourage those who are interested to show up earlier on each screening to secure an admission.
