The Taiwan International Documentary Festival ended yesterday with an award ceremony handing out prizes for outstanding film and video documentary works.
German filmmaker Stefan Tolz took away the top prize, the Grand Prize, in the international film competition category, with his film, On the Edge of Time: Male Domains in the Caucasus, winning a cash prize of NT$300,000.
PHOTO: YU SEN-LUN, TAIPEI TIMES
The two second prize awards were given to Israeli director David Fisher's Love Inventory and Danish film Family by Phie Ambo-Nielson and Sami Martin Saif, each winning a cash prize of NT$100,000.
Taiwanese director Tang Shiang-chu's (
"In this film festival, we seem to have walked through the Caucasus, Siberia, temples in Taipei and an island in Bolivia. And we have learned how to fish in Norway, to lead a life as a homeless person in Buenos Aires and to climb the mountains of Hsinchu. ? This is the great thing about this festival," said jury member Alan Rosenthal referring to the films in the international film competition.
"We had a very smooth meeting. All the awards were decided without much disagreement," added Lee Daw-ming (
The winning film, On the Edge of Time: Male Domains in the Caucasus depicts a multi-ethic male-dominated culture and a simple lifestyle that seems to have been forgotten by time.
The jury gave this film the top award because of the enormous difficulties that had been overcome while shooting in the remote Caucasus region.
Tolz expressed great excitement at receiving the award for a film he said had previously been rejected by a German TV station. He was now able to prove them wrong.
"I have to thank the people of the Caucasus for opening their hearts to my camera," Tolz said as he got ready to celebrate his victory.
"My original idea was inspired by the millennium. I wanted to find a place where people live in a different time, without mobile phones or computers."
David Fisher's Love Inventory, a film digging into the filmmaker's own family secrets, took a second place Merit Award. Although the film has already picked up prizes in Berlin and at the Israeli Academy Awards, Fisher said this award was special to him. "I remember the warm reception I received here and the good questions from the audience. Also, I'm happy to show an Israeli film that is not about war or national historical problems," said Fisher.
In fact, the filmmakers found more than just a passionate audience for their films. They also found a market, with PTS, Taiwan's public TV network, expressing interest in some of the works.
In the international video competition category, the Grand Prize was given to Katorga by Russian filmmaker Evgeny Solomin, winning NT$100,000.
The two Merit Prizes are given to Zhao Liang (
Taiwanese filmmaker Zero Chou's (周美玲) Poles Extremity (極端寶島) and Finnish filmmaker Maria Lappalainen's On Edge were given Special Mention prizes in the video awards.
The two Taiwan Awards, designed to recognize local filmmakers, were given to Tseng Wen-chen (
The NETPAC Award, an award given by the Network for the Promotion of Asian Cinema, was given to Korean film Sky-blue Hometown by Kim So-young, about a Russian Korean painter in Uzbekistan. The film also won Best Documentary at the Pusan International Film Festival in 2000 and Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival in 2001.
One of the biggest sore spots in Taiwan’s historical friendship with the US came in 1979 when US president Jimmy Carter broke off formal diplomatic relations with Taiwan’s Republic of China (ROC) government so that the US could establish relations with the People’s Republic of China (PRC). Taiwan’s derecognition came purely at China’s insistence, and the US took the deal. Retired American diplomat John Tkacik, who for almost decade surrounding that schism, from 1974 to 1982, worked in embassies in Taipei and Beijing and at the Taiwan Desk in Washington DC, recently argued in the Taipei Times that “President Carter’s derecognition
This year will go down in the history books. Taiwan faces enormous turmoil and uncertainty in the coming months. Which political parties are in a good position to handle big changes? All of the main parties are beset with challenges. Taking stock, this column examined the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) (“Huang Kuo-chang’s choking the life out of the TPP,” May 28, page 12), the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) (“Challenges amid choppy waters for the DPP,” June 14, page 12) and the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) (“KMT struggles to seize opportunities as ‘interesting times’ loom,” June 20, page 11). Times like these can
You can tell a lot about a generation from the contents of their cool box: nowadays the barbecue ice bucket is likely to be filled with hard seltzers, non-alcoholic beers and fluorescent BuzzBallz — a particular favorite among Gen Z. Two decades ago, it was WKD, Bacardi Breezers and the odd Smirnoff Ice bobbing in a puddle of melted ice. And while nostalgia may have brought back some alcopops, the new wave of ready-to-drink (RTD) options look and taste noticeably different. It is not just the drinks that have changed, but drinking habits too, driven in part by more health-conscious consumers and
Dr. Y. Tony Yang, Associate Dean of Health Policy and Population Science at George Washington University, argued last week in a piece for the Taipei Times about former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) leading a student delegation to the People’s Republic of China (PRC) that, “The real question is not whether Ma’s visit helps or hurts Taiwan — it is why Taiwan lacks a sophisticated, multi-track approach to one of the most complex geopolitical relationships in the world” (“Ma’s Visit, DPP’s Blind Spot,” June 18, page 8). Yang contends that the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) has a blind spot: “By treating any
RSS