Print

Mail

wiki links

[ FILM FESTIVAL ] Kid’s stuff

By Ho Yi
STAFF REPORTER
Friday, Apr 04, 2008, Page 17

Bean Sprout, an animated short combining Chinese brush painting and paper cutting by local filmmaker Chang Shu-man. PHOTO: COURTESY OF TICTFF

Films made for pre-schoolers and teens. Children’s book fairs. A magical garden composed of playful installation art. For children and parents in Taipei, it’s hard to think of a better way to enjoy spring break than the Taiwan International Children’s TV and Film Festival (台灣國際兒童電視影展, TICTFF), which starts today at Eslite bookstores across town. The biennale event is a children’s guidebook to the world as seen from a decidedly non-Disney perspective. It features a lineup of more than 100 movies from 31 countries, as well as plenty of activities for both youngsters and grownups. “We see [the festival] as a young audience’s first film festival experience,” says curator Angelika Wang (王耿瑜).

TICTFF exposes children to a world of imagination different than the ones inhabited by Picachu, Doraemon and Mickey Mouse. Fairytales and mythologies from different cultures are reinterpreted, while abstract and graphic worlds are explored in forms ranging from sand animation, claymation and three-dimensional animation to paper cutting and hand painting.

Above: Kidz in da Hood is a warm story about an illegal immigrant and her Swedish friends. PHOTO: COURTESY OF TICTFF

In the themed section Time Machine, nine fictional and documentary films sketch the lives of children living in different parts of the world, from refugee camps in Iran in Wherever I Go the Sky Is Mine and a brick factory where eight-year-old Angel works in Peru in Angel’s Fire to civil war-ravaged Uganda in War/Dance and southern India after the tsunami in Tsunami 81.

Also highlighted are films from the five Nordic countries, where children’s cinema flourishes. Wang said some of the films show the similarities between Nordic and Taiwanese societies. The Danish short Ernst and His New Football and No Network from Iceland both tackle the issue of single parenthood. The latter also takes a fun look at the Internet generation through the story of a young boy who loses his mobile phone connection in a blizzard. Stories about illegal African immigrants in Sweden in the opening film Kidz in da Hood and Kurdish exiles in Leaps and Bounds engage and educate on the values of multiculturalism. Swedish children’s author Astrid Lindgren’s popular character Pippi Longstocking also makes an appearance in the 1969 movie Pippi Goes on Board. (There’s more on Lindgren’s colorful world at Nordic exhibition at the Eslite Xinyi store).

Festival notes What: 2008 Taiwan International Children’s TV and Film Festival (第三屆台灣國際兒童電視影展) When: Today through April 8 Where: Film screenings at the screening rooms on the 6th floor at Eslite Xinyi Store (誠品信義店), 11 Songgao Rd, Taipei City (台北市松高路11號). Art exhibition at the B2 gallery of Eslite Bookstore Dunnan Branch (敦南誠品書店), 245, Dunhua S Rd Sec 1, Taipei City (台北市敦化南路一段245號) Tickets: NT$50 per screening; available at the festival counter on the first floor of Eslite Xinyi Store On the Net: www.tictff.org.tw

Elsewhere, the festival’s Kids as Directors section shows how children understand and translate the world around them with works made by children in Belgium, Singapore, Spain and Mexico. The festival will also screen 10 projects made by elementary school children and their teachers through TICTFF workshops.

Held in conjunction with the film screenings, an interactive installation art show turns the B2 gallery of Eslite Bookstore Dunnan Branch into a digital garden of images and sounds. Visitors can activate animations on a wall, compose a piece of contemporary music, or conduct a symphony using colorful microphones hanging from the ceiling. Those exhausted by all the activities mentioned above can on a plastic lawn and paint their own virtual landscapes on video screens.
This story has been viewed 773 times.