The Chiayi City International Art Doc Film Festival (嘉義國際藝術紀錄影展) brings together local and international art documentaries. A total of 49 films will be shown, of which 10 are world premieres, 16 will be shown for the first time in Asia and 14 in Taiwan.
The festival, which begins tomorrow and runs every weekend until April 2, will also feature lectures by directors from the Czech Republic, Thailand, China and Hong Kong, as well as an art forum on documentary film.
There are four themes for this year’s festival, including Precious Words of Hers, which addresses women’s issues and offers in depth discussions on the topic of female culture; Hard Pursuit includes documentaries that manifest struggles that either documentarians or their subjects undergo to pursue their goals; Timeless Souls pays tribute to exceptional subjects and Past at Present presents the past in a deeply meaningful manner while also displaying diversity.
Photo courtesy of the Chiayi City International Art Doc Film Festival
Screenings are free, but audiences are advised to line up 30 minutes before each screening. The festival’s excellent Web site in English and Chinese has sections explaining each of the films. It can be found at: www.chiayifestival.com.
■ Chiayi Municipal Museum (嘉義市立博物館), 275-1, Jhongsiao Rd, Chiayi City (嘉義市忠孝路275-1號)
■ Admission is free. Every weekend from tomorrow until April 2
May 6 to May 12 Those who follow the Chinese-language news may have noticed the usage of the term zhuge (豬哥, literally ‘pig brother,’ a male pig raised for breeding purposes) in reports concerning the ongoing #Metoo scandal in the entertainment industry. The term’s modern connotations can range from womanizer or lecher to sexual predator, but it once referred to an important rural trade. Until the 1970s, it was a common sight to see a breeder herding a single “zhuge” down a rustic path with a bamboo whip, often traveling large distances over rugged terrain to service local families. Not only
By far the most jarring of the new appointments for the incoming administration is that of Tseng Wen-tsan (鄭文燦) to head the Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF). That is a huge demotion for one of the most powerful figures in the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP). Tseng has one of the most impressive resumes in the party. He was very active during the Wild Lily Movement and his generation is now the one taking power. He has served in many of the requisite government, party and elected positions to build out a solid political profile. Elected as mayor of Taoyuan as part of the
Moritz Mieg, 22, lay face down in the rubble, the ground shaking violently beneath him. Boulders crashed down around him, some stones hitting his back. “I just hoped that it would be one big hit and over, because I did not want to be hit nearly to death and then have to slowly die,” the student from Germany tells Taipei Times. MORNING WALK Early on April 3, Mieg set out on a scenic hike through Taroko Gorge in Hualien County (花蓮). It was a fine day for it. Little did he know that the complex intersection of tectonic plates Taiwan sits
Last week the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) released a set of very strange numbers on Taiwan’s wealth distribution. Duly quoted in the Taipei Times, the report said that “The Gini coefficient for Taiwanese households… was 0.606 at the end of 2021, lower than Australia’s 0.611, the UK’s 0.620, Japan’s 0.678, France’s 0.676 and Germany’s 0.727, the agency said in a report.” The Gini coefficient is a measure of relative inequality, usually of wealth or income, though it can be used to evaluate other forms of inequality. However, for most nations it is a number from .25 to .50