Six months after the 24-day occupation of Legislative Yuan, Sunflower participants and supporters will return to the scene tonight — not to protest, but to watch Sunflower Occupation (太陽.不遠), a compilation of nine short documentaries that explore the multiple aspects of the movement and the various issues it raises.
Shortly after the students and activists occupied the legislative floor on March 18, the Taipei Documentary Filmmakers’ Union (台北市紀錄片從業人員職業工會) initiated the collective project and called on filmmakers to join. Eventually, 10 directors, 26 cinematographers and dozens of animators, editors, musicians and volunteers answered the call to create the standalone shorts, funded by 3,154 individual sponsors on VDemocracy.com, a crowdfunding platform for social movements.
Each work tackles a specific theme or issue. The Night of Enlightenment (一夜之間我長大), for example, brings viewers back to the night when the violent crackdown on students occupying the Executive Yuan left many wounded, disenchanted and politically enlightened. Student leader Chen Wei-ting (陳為廷) takes center stage in A Commander Made by Accident (不小心變成總指揮), which offers an honest portrait of Chen’s transformation as an activist. History is revisited in 1990 (我們的1990), revealing how Taiwan has gone through the Wild Lilies (野百合學運) student movement in 1991 to the Sunflowers, as seen through the eyes of former Wild Lilies.
Photo courtesy of Activator Marketing Company
Tonight’s event will take place on Jinan Road (濟南路) outside the legislature. The outdoor screening will start at 7pm, followed by a brief talk by two participating filmmakers He Chao-ti (賀照緹) and Tsai Tsung-lung (蔡崇隆).
After tonight’s screening, the film will tour to 17 cities and towns across the country from tomorrow to Nov. 16. All screenings are free. Those interested need to sign up through www.accupass.com, where screening schedules and venue information are available.
More information about the project can be found on its Facebook fan page at www.facebook.com/318doc.
A few weeks ago I found myself at a Family Mart talking with the morning shift worker there, who has become my coffee guy. Both of us were in a funk over the “unseasonable” warm weather, a state of mind known as “solastalgia” — distress produced by environmental change. In fact, the weather was not that out of the ordinary in boiling Central Taiwan, and likely cooler than the temperatures we will experience in the near-future. According to the Taiwan Adaptation Platform, between 1957 and 2006, summer lengthened by 27.8 days, while winter shrunk by 29.7 days. Winter is not
Taiwan’s post-World War II architecture, “practical, cheap and temporary,” not to mention “rather forgettable.” This was a characterization recently given by Taiwan-based historian John Ross on his Formosa Files podcast. Yet the 1960s and 1970s were, in fact, the period of Taiwan’s foundational building boom, which, to a great extent, defined the look of Taiwan’s cities, determining the way denizens live today. During this period, functionalist concrete blocks and Chinese nostalgia gave way to new interpretations of modernism, large planned communities and high-rise skyscrapers. It is currently the subject of a new exhibition at the Taipei Fine Arts Museum, Modern
March 25 to March 31 A 56-year-old Wu Li Yu-ke (吳李玉哥) was straightening out her artist son’s piles of drawings when she inadvertently flipped one over, revealing the blank backside of the paper. Absent-mindedly, she picked up a pencil and recalled how she used to sketch embroidery designs for her clothing business. Without clients and budget or labor constraints to worry about, Wu Li drew freely whatever image came to her mind. With much more free time now that her son had found a job, she found herself missing her home village in China, where she
In recent years, Slovakia has been seen as a highly democratic and Western-oriented Central European country. This image was reinforced by the election of the country’s first female president in 2019, efforts to provide extensive assistance to Ukraine and the strengthening of relations with Taiwan, all of which strengthened Slovakia’s position within the European Union. However, the latest developments in the country suggest that the situation is changing rapidly. As such, the presidential elections to be held on March 23 will be an indicator of whether Slovakia remains in the Western sphere of influence or moves eastward, notably towards Russia and