More and more young filmmakers now see the genre as a medium of self-expression. Both Tainan National University of the Arts and View Point (紀錄觀點) [Taiwan's only permanent channel that provides financial and technical support and airing time to documentaries] help train this new breed of filmmakers.
Yet voices of dissent have arisen in recent years, wagging their fingers at academia for nurturing a clique of directors that makes self-indulgent works about themselves, their families and friends.
For Yang, the resources available to film directors determine the form and content of their work. The limitations of students' works are the inevitable result of training that requires students to produce films single-handedly.
Full Shot, led by Wu Yi-feng (吳乙峰), has been attacked by critics who say the works produced by the workshop set the standard for the documentary mainstream, and only focus on individuals struggling with everyday life.
“Such films are both documentary cinema's strength and weakness ... . Films appealing to the public's sentiments enjoy great popularity, but you can't just have one type of documentary,” Yu said.
But for Yang, Full Shot has pursued its founders' beliefs and has made an indelible contribution to Taiwan's documentary cinema.
“The workshop has a devoted great deal of time and effort in promoting documentary films in colleges and communities around the island over the last 10 years … . The public's acceptance of documentary films in the past couple of years is by no means a sudden phenomenon but a result of years of plowing and weeding,” Yang said.
The “sentimental” genre of documentary films that focuses on individual narratives found recent box-office success with films such as Jump! Boys (翻滾吧！男孩) and My Football Summer (奇蹟的夏天). Both movies focus on the stories of lovable protagonists told through a feature film-like narration. The warm reaction from audience members proves the strategy works.
“It is the same with the rest of the world. It's always the soft, warm, easy-to-digest productions that enjoy commercial success and that is why alternative avenues like PTS are vital the sustainable development of documentary cinema,” Yu said.
Though the future is bright, it is commonly agreed by film pundits that Taiwan's documentary cinema still has a long way to go before it can really make it to into the international mainstream.
“People now have different expectations for documentary films. Directors also have different designs for their works and adopt different work models to achieve their goals. We are looking at the irreversible trend towards diversification,” said director Kuo.
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