Taiwan documentaries on tour

Seventeen nominees from the Taiwan International Documentary Festival (台灣國際紀錄片雙年展) will be screened at four locations across Taiwan, providing a preview of Taipei's upcoming documentary film festival, which will take place in December.

The Council of Culture Affairs (文建會), which is organizing the biannual event, says the purpose of holding this tour is to allow those living outside of Taipei the chance to participate in the festival.

The 17 nominees were selected from the festival's 120 films and are the contenders for the Taiwan Prize, which recognizes local documentary-making. The nominees are also eligible to join the festival's international competition.

Biographies, especially of the disadvantaged or bizarre, are as usual the focus of many of the documentaries.

A Departed Banquet looks at the lives of unemployed miners. A Glorious Battle shows a community fighting pollution by toxic waste. And Who Will Listen to Me? portrays a group of "Taiwanese spidermen" -- Aborigines who work on high-rise constructions.

Spring -- The Story of Hsu Chin-yu (春天 -- 許金玉的故事), tells the story of the woman who organized the first worker's demonstration in the history of Taiwan's labor movement, only to suffer during the White Terror of the 1960s. The Footsteps of KT is a portrayal of the late Lee Kuo-ting (李國鼎), a politician who helped lead Taiwan's economic surge in the 1960s and 1970s.

The movies will show at:

Hsinchu: Oct. 4 to Oct. 10, Hsinchu Film Museum, (03) 758-4857

Taichung: Oct. 11 to Oct. 17 at National Taiwan Museum,

(04) 2372-3552, ext. 327

Ilan: Oct. 18 to Oct 24 at Ilan Community College, (03) 931-1749 ext. 21

Kaohsiung: Oct. 26 to Oct 31 at Kaohsiung Film Library,

(07) 331-4990