Washington’s Library of Congress has unveiled its annual list of 25 movies to be added to the National Film Registry, including space drama Apollo 13, family classic Home Alone, science fiction classic Terminator 2: Judgment Day as well as Taiwanese director Ang Lee’s (李安) The Wedding Banquet (囍宴).
It is the first Taiwanese film to be inducted into the National Film Registry and Lee said it reminded him of his passion for making movies when he was young.
The National Film Registry is a list of movies designated by the US National Film Preservation Board (NFPB) to be kept in the Library of Congress. Since the passing of the National Film Preservation Act of 1988, the NFPB selects “culturally, historically or aesthetically significant films” each year, showcasing the range and diversity of US film heritage.
The films chosen for the registry can range from commercial films and documentaries to experimental films and independent films, but they have to be at least 10 years old. After this year’s selection, there are 875 films in the registry, which include a range of genres, themes and periods. The films are preserved and stored at the Library of Congress’ National Audio-Visual Conservation Center using grants for the project.
Lee’s Wedding Banquet, a film about a Taiwanese immigrant in New York City who fakes a marriage to hide that he is gay from his visiting family, was the latest queer film to be picked for its representation of the immigrant experience through an LGBTQ+ lens.
So far, the Taiwan Film and Audiovisual Institute is the only administrative institution in Taiwan that specializes in the collection of audiovisual assets, with the mission of preserving, restoring, researching and promoting these assets and making them available to the public.
The institute could take a page out of the National Film Registry’s book by passing an act and establishing a unit similar to the NFPB, each year selecting films to put into its archive for preservation.
Wang Hsi-chang is a writer.
Translated by Rita Wang
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