The number of cinematic events in Taipei has increased greatly over the last few years, giving locals a chance to see more than the mainstream products of Hollywood studios, which nevertheless continue to dominate cinemas. Many film festivals have sought to redress this balance, but as the organizers of Image-Movement Cinematheque pointed out, most of these have focused on classics or the work of established independent filmmakers. The Image-Movement Cinematheque festival, which is scheduled to open its first season tomorrow, aims to establish a forum in which experimental film can be shown.
According to Image-Movement Cinematheque, a group of five young people with a background in film, experimental is the wellspring from which much inspiration for contemporary film comes, even though the names of the filmmakers and actors are not the regular fair of celebrity magazines. "With so many `masters' around, why are there still so many people stupidly making their own `experimental' films?" the organizers ask rhetorically. "Well, for art, to stop is to die, so we must go on experimenting, constantly looking for new places to go. These films are not saying `I am able to make films as well,' but are asking `Is there anything I can't do with film?'" For these filmmakers, the doctrines and ideologies of art are totally ridiculous.
The titles of the various sections give some idea of the emphasis on reevaluating accepted discourse. The opening program tomorrow titled "Small as Image, Big as Life: American 8mm Films" is a direct challenge to the accepted cinematic norms in Taiwan and the idea that 8mm is dead. The program includes 11 short films by Super8 veteran Janis Crystal Lipzin and others who affirm the value of 8mm as an artistic medium.
PHOTO COURTESY OF IMAGE-MOVEMENT CINEMATHEQUE
The festival will run every Saturday (except for the weekend of the 25th when it will run on Sunday) starting tomorrow through to April 4 with a total of 11 programs. These include, "Other Worlds: Between the US and Taiwan" (focusing on filmmaker Lana Lin, who will also be present at the screenings), "Strategies for Disappearance" (a slide presentation of Interdisiplinary artist H. Lan Thao Lam), "Alchemy of Film" (films in which celluloid stock has been treated in unconventional ways to create new visual effects), "Reflections from a Cinematic Cesspool" (a tribute to George Kuchar, one of a series of "masters" that the festival organizers want to introduce to Taiwan audiences), "HitchcockcochctiH" (four films reprising the Hitchcock canon), "Queer Innovations" (gay and lesbian experimental films), "Pornography Recycled" (reassessing pornography as an artistic medium), "Event, Happening, Performance, Body Art" (a blurring of boundaries between these related forms), "Self Portrait in French Experimental Cinema" and "Story of the Eye -- Point-of-View in French Experimental Cinema."
Films have been drawn from as far back as the 1970s, and provide a chance to see footage that is otherwise not easily accessible. There is little pandering to the comfort zone of audiences, for the organizers admit that in most cases, the films do not meet the criteria of a conventional film, "because the place these films are trying to go is an unknown place." This is the first event in what they hope will become a bi-annual event. While most of the films for this first season are drawn from overseas, primarily the US and France, the organizers say they hope to make closer contact with local filmmakers to present more local product in the second season in September.
The films will be screened at the National Film Archive (國家電影資料館) located at 4F, 7 Chingtao E. Rd., Taipei (北市青島東路7號4樓) and begin each Saturday at 7:30pm. (Strategies and Disappearance on Jan. 27 is the only exception, and will be held at IT Park gallery, 3F, 41 Yitung St., Taipei).
Detailed information can be obtained from the festival flier distributed at Eslite bookstores or e-mail the organizers at imagemovement@yahoo.com.tw.
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