Once a squatter community inhabited primarily by war veterans who retreated to Taiwan with the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), Treasure Hill (寶藏巖) has witnessed the city’s transformation while undergoing a metamorphosis itself to become what it is today: an artist village and youth clubhouse frequented by camera-wielding visitors.
Bearing its history in mind, there is probably no better place to hold the Treasure Hill Film Festival: Mirage — Urban and Architecture (海市蜃樓 — 城市與建築專題影展), an outdoor event that aims to explore the relation between urban inhabitants and the environment through cinema.
Co-organized by Treasure Hill Artist Village (寶藏巖國際藝術村) and Taiwan Film institute (國家電影中心), the mini-festival opens today with a lineup of 10 films from Taiwan, Hong Kong and China and runs through August 15.
Photo Courtesy of Treasure Hill Artist Village
Among the selected works, both Wan Jen’s (萬仁) 1998 Connection by Fate (超級公民) and Robinson’s Crusoe (魯賓遜漂流記, 2003) by Lin Cheng-sheng (林正盛) tackle issues surrounding land development and urban living. Meanwhile, Waterfront Villa Bonita (水岸麗景, 2007) by Lou Yi-an (樓一安) examines the absurdity of urban life through the eyes of people living on the margins of society.
Other selected films include Tsai Ming-liang’s (蔡明亮) Vive L’Amour (愛情萬歲), Chinese maestro Jia Zhangke’s (賈樟柯) 24 City (二十四城記) and McDull, Prince de la Bun (麥兜，菠蘿油王子) by Hong Kong animation director Toe Yuen (袁建滔).
The outdoor screenings will take place Fridays and Saturdays at 7pm. After each screening, there will be a panel discussion on the films and related issues featuring filmmakers, artists and scholars. All activities are free of admission, and the films have Chinese subtitles only.
Photo Courtesy of Treasure Hill Artist Village
Treasure Hill Artist Village is located at 2, Alley 14, Ln 230, Dingzhou Rd Sec 3, Taipei City (台北市汀州路三段230巷14弄2號). For more information, visit www.artistvillage.org.
Photo Courtesy of Treasure Hill Artist Village
Photo Courtesy of Treasure Hill Artist Village
Photo Courtesy of Treasure Hill Artist Village
Photo Courtesy of Treasure Hill Artist Village
June 23 to June 29 After capturing the walled city of Hsinchu on June 22, 1895, the Japanese hoped to quickly push south and seize control of Taiwan’s entire west coast — but their advance was stalled for more than a month. Not only did local Hakka fighters continue to cause them headaches, resistance forces even attempted to retake the city three times. “We had planned to occupy Anping (Tainan) and Takao (Kaohsiung) as soon as possible, but ever since we took Hsinchu, nearby bandits proclaiming to be ‘righteous people’ (義民) have been destroying train tracks and electrical cables, and gathering in villages
Swooping low over the banks of a Nile River tributary, an aid flight run by retired American military officers released a stream of food-stuffed sacks over a town emptied by fighting in South Sudan, a country wracked by conflict. Last week’s air drop was the latest in a controversial development — private contracting firms led by former US intelligence officers and military veterans delivering aid to some of the world’s deadliest conflict zones, in operations organized with governments that are combatants in the conflicts. The moves are roiling the global aid community, which warns of a more militarized, politicized and profit-seeking trend
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
The wide-screen spectacle of Formula One gets a gleaming, rip-roaring workout in Joseph Kosinski’s F1, a fine-tuned machine of a movie that, in its most riveting racing scenes, approaches a kind of high-speed splendor. Kosinski, who last endeavored to put moviegoers in the seat of a fighter jet in Top Gun: Maverick, has moved to the open cockpits of Formula One with much the same affection, if not outright need, for speed. A lot of the same team is back. Jerry Bruckheimer produces. Ehren Kruger, a co-writer on Maverick, takes sole credit here. Hans Zimmer, a co-composer previously, supplies the thumping
RSS