The 3rd Taiwan Film Festival in Berlin is headed online this August amid the COVID-19 crisis.Featuring documentaries, fiction and other genres, the virtual screening of 9 films from August 21st to 30th covers a wide range of subjects: from Taiwanese indigenous wildlife, contemporary homosexual issues, to unique genres of martial arts. “[The online screening] shows how perseverant Taiwanese people are. While many independent film festivals choose to cancel due to the pandemic, we still launch this Festival as planned, so that people in Germany can enjoy brilliant Taiwanese movies,” states Jaye, the curator of the Festival.
The festival has not theme this year. Without fixating on any specific topic, Taiwan Film Festival 2020 presents a diverse, multifaceted and powerful program. The festival aims to promote new visions of understanding Taiwan and strengthen the trans-cultural ties between Taiwan and Germany. It will be showcasing some of the best of recent Taiwanese cinema.
The Festival line-up opens with two feature films: “Ice Poison” (2014) and “City of Jade” (2015), brought to you by Burmese-
Taiwanese director Midi Z. The 38-year-old director received the Outstanding Taiwanese Filmmaker reward at the Golden Horse Awards (2016), considered the Oscars of the Chinese-speaking world.
Two queer documentaries are also selected for the viewers in Germany: the award-winning “Small Talk” (2017) directed by Huang Hui-chen, and “Taipeilove*” (2019) by German-Chinese director Lucie Liu, presenting how LGBTQ communities are perceived in Taiwanese society.
Apart from diversity in topics and themes, unique genres are highlighted in this year’s Festival as well. In “Taiwan B-Movies”, director Hou Chi-Jan revitalizes the ‘social realism’ genre, which enjoyed a short lifespan from the late 1970s to the early 1980s. The genre juxtaposes sex and violence against the backdrop of strict censorship and political repression in Taiwan.
Last but not least, the festival offers two thrilling martial arts movies: “The Gangs, the Oscars, and the Walking Dead” (2019) and “Vengeance of the Phoenix Sisters” (1968). Shot a half-century apart, the two works show contrasting perspectives on “Jiang-Hu”, a term generally referring to the (mostly fictional) martial arts world of ancient China.
Prior to the Festival, there will be hosting three unmissable Facebook live stream discussions, to bring you unique and illuminating insights into the selected movies. The first discussion on August 7th features Dr. Jhy-Wey Shieh- Taiwanese ambassador to Germany, in conversation with Jaye- curator of Taiwan Film Festival, sharing his experience as a young student in the 70s. Taiwan at the time was under the martial law and strict censorship, nevertheless, its vibrant picture of cultural scenes never ceased to glow.
Instead of single tickets, the Festival this year launches a 7-day Festival Pass, granting festgoers unlimited access to all 9 films for the whole week during the Festival. The presale kicks off on August 1st on the festival’s Vimeo page. Each Festival Pass costs 15,40 Euros and the first 150 early birds will receive a limited-version Festival bag. All movies have English subtitles. Taiwan Film Festival 2020 invites everyone to join us in the spectacular film screenings, to feel enlightened, inspired and empowered during this challenging time.
