Returning for its second edition between the 25th and 31st October, the Taiwan Film Festival Edinburgh will be bringing the magic of Taiwanese cinema to Scottish audiences. Supported by the Ministry of Culture, Taiwan, this year’s hybrid format will feature in-person screenings at Glasgow Film Theatre and Summerhall in Edinburgh, as well as a free digital programme of films.
With the theme of “Disruptions and Transformations”, the Festival explores both historic shifts in Taiwanese society as well as the small disruptions of the everyday. The Festival’s programme will feature a range of topics, including war, urban life and LGBTQ+ rights, as well as screening works from legends of Taiwanese cinema such as Hou Hsiao-Hsien and Edward Yang. Viewers can pre-book digital screenings through the Festival’s platform.
Liu Kuan-Ping and Chiu Yi-Chieh, the Festival’s Chief Curator and co-curator respectively, said, “On 23 March 2020, all of our lives were interrupted in unimaginable ways by the global pandemic - it made us reflect on how disruptions and transformations are always present in our daily lives. We’re really excited that for the first time since the bringing, Taiwan Film Festival Edinburgh is brining three in-person screenings taking place at two fantastic arts institutions: Glasgow Film Theatre and Summerhall.
This year’s digital programme will feature a variety of different genres. Classic Taiwanese melodramas from the 1960s such as Hsin Chi’s “Foolish Bride, Naïve Bridegroom” will introduce the audiences to Taiyupian (“Taiwanese language cinema”) genre. Critically-acclaimed auteurs of Taiwan New Cinema such as Hou Hsiao-Hsien and Edward Yang will be available online with their films, “Dust in the Wind” and “Taipei Story” respectively. More modern works from the turn of the millennium, including Chen Kuo-fu’s “The Personals” from 1998 and Zero Zhou’s “Splendid Float” will examine Taiwan’s more recent disruptions and transformations.
The Festival’s in-person screenings will be split into two strands. In the lead up to COP26 in Glasgow, Glasgow Film Theatre will be host to the screenings of the documentaries “Sacred Forest” on 25 October and “Whale Island” on 30 October, examining Taiwan’s environmental transformations. The programme “Sounds in Silence”, on the other hand, will transport audiences back to a Taiwan of the past through a double bill screening of archive films with contemporary scoring by the musician Rory Green at Summerhall 27 October.
Director of Taipei Representative Office UK Cultural Division, Dr Chen Pin-Chuan said: “It is great to see Taiwan Film Festival Edinburgh continuing their great work. Through these wonderful films from Taiwan, our office hopes to foster a connection with Scottish audiences, as we plan to introduce more of Taiwanese culture to Scotland in the near future.”
Links
To view and book access to this year’s digital screenings, please visit: https://online.taiwanfilmfestival.org.uk/
For further details about the Taiwan Film Festival Edinburgh 2021, please visit the Festival’s website: https://taiwanfilmfestival.org.uk/