With the line between documentary and feature film being actively blurred by a new generation of directors, it is still good news that the Biennial Documentary Film Festival is back to bring a collection of "alternative viewing": films that start out by saying they are about real life.
Over 10 days starting from Dec. 5, a rich program of documentary films will be screened that affirm the diversity that exists on this planet we live on. The opening film sets an upbeat if serious note with Johan van der Keuken's The Long Holiday, which took major awards at Berlin, and at documentary festivals in Switzerland and San Francisco. It also took the top prize in the competition category in Taiwan's documentary film festival two years ago.
While The Long Holiday is an excellent work of the documentary filmmaker's art, the fact that it was doing the festival circuit two years ago points to one criticism that should be leveled at organizers this year: the fact that many of the films being shown are not particularly new, and that some, such as The Fourth Dimension by Trinh T. Minh-ha featured in the much smaller Women Make Waves film festival.
The Long Holiday takes as its point of departure the discovery by celebrated filmmaker Johan van der Keuken in October 1998 that he had cancer and only had a few years to live. This news acted as the catalyst for him and his wife to make a final long trip abroad. He visited meditating monks in Bhutan, and wandered through the slums of San Paulo. The film is a road movie, replete with his musings on life and his work. Johan van der Keuken regarded it as a chronicle of his own view of the world, made more urgent by his impending mortality.
This cinematic project is given even more poignancy by the 10 minutes of film also to be screened under the title For the Time Being (2002), which was all that vander Keuken had completed of a new project when the cancer he had been fighting finally claimed him.
While most of the screenings will take place at President Cinema or Red House Theater, the opening film will show at Sun Cinema, and 500 seats have been reserved for distribution at the door.
This year the Documentary film festival has been moved to Taipei's cinema district, Hsimenting, making it more an integral part of Taiwan's cinema-going culture. Ticketing is through Eslite bookstores around Taipei.
Information about the many films and screening times can be obtained at the festival Web site at http://www.cca.gov.tw/tidf/.
What: Taipei International Documentary Festival
Where: Screenings will take place at the Red Theater and President Cinema
When: From Dec. 5
Tickets: Available from all Eslite stores
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