Although its a party/arts event at Huashan organized by lao-wai, this is a far cry from the "foreigner head-shaking party" that tabloids enjoy getting steamed up about. It is, in fact, the Urban Nomad Film Festival (城市游牧影展), now back at Huashan for the second year.
This time round, a more complete selection of films will be shown, and these will be more focused on a single theme. In total, there will be 25 films (experimental, shorts, documentaries and mockumentaries) screening over two days.
PHOTO COURTESY OF URBAN NOMAD
The Friday event begins with three experimental shorts. Tony Wu (吳俊輝), from Taiwan, a frequent participant in international short film or experimental film festivals, will present his latest work Making Maps (製造地圖). Wu's experimental style makes use of found footage, animated images and optical printing.
In Making Maps, he uses these methods to talk about pornography, specifically blood and semen. For Wu, the pornographic images he weaves through this 21-minutes is a way of creating a physical and psychological map of human beings.
Another Taiwan entry is Lin Hongjohnn's (林宏璋) film about Taiwan's UFO cult. Lin, as the nephew of UFO cult leader, Chen Heng-ming, has unique access to the true believers.
The main event on Saturday is the Taiwan premiere of an underground film Redneck Vampire, a mockumentary by Mike Anderson. In the film, Anderson tracks down a man in central Alabama, who claims to be a redneck vampire, and explores his life of drugs, sex and immortality. The film proved a big hit on the Internet with its hilarious play on racial and class stereotypes. Even Ann Rice, the author of Interview with the Vampire, has signed on at the film's Web site.
The mockumentary is followed by the rockumentary session of three film. Dark Funeral, a film documenting the Taiwan performance of a Swedish black metal band. It explores their views on satanic cults and church burning. The film was previously selected for the 2002 New York Underground Film Festival.
For film-loving people, Urban Nomad will be an event to spot some innovative or odd creations of independent filmmaking. And for those who just want to chill out, there will be live music today and tomorrow nights, accompanied by film footage of surfing, punk rock concerts and a remix of Hitchcock's classic film Psycho.
The Urban Nomad Film Festival will run tonight and tomorrow at the Huashan Arts District (華山藝文特區) starting at 8pm. Huashan is located at 1 Pateh Rd., Sec. 1,Taipei (台北市八德路一段1號). Tickets are NT$200 for one day or NT$300 for both days. Tickets available at the door.
Dec. 9 to Dec. 15 When architect Lee Chung-yao (李重耀) heard that the Xinbeitou Train Station was to be demolished in 1988 for the MRT’s Tamsui line, he immediately reached out to the owner of Taiwan Folk Village (台灣民俗村). Lee had been advising Shih Chin-shan (施金山) on his pet project, a 52-hectare theme park in Changhua County that aimed to showcase traditional Taiwanese architecture, crafts and culture. Shih had wanted to build all the structures from scratch, but Lee convinced him to acquire historic properties and move them to the park grounds. Although the Cultural
Supplements are no cottage industry. Hawked by the likes of the Kardashian-Jenner clan, vitamin gummies have in recent years found popularity among millennials and zoomers, who are more receptive to supplements in the form of “powders, liquids and gummies” than older generations. Gwyneth Paltrow’s Goop — no stranger to dubious health trends — sells its own line of such supplements. On TikTok, influencers who shill multivitamin gummies — and more recently, vitamin patches resembling cutesy, colorful stickers or fine line tattoos — promise glowing skin, lush locks, energy boosts and better sleep. But if it’s real health benefits you’re after, you’re
The Taipei Times reported last week that housing transactions fell 15.3 percent last month, to under 20,000 units. However, the market boomed for the first eight months of the year, and observers expect it to show growth for the year as a whole. The fall was due to Central Bank intervention. “The negative impact of credit controls grew evident for the third straight month,” said Sinyi Realty Inc (信義房屋) research manager Tseng Ching-ter (曾敬德), according to the report. Central Bank Governor Yang Chin-long (楊金龍) in October said that the Central Bank implemented selective credit controls in September to cool the housing
Bitcoin topped US$100,000 for the first time this week as a massive rally in the world’s most popular cryptocurrency, largely accelerated by the election of Donald Trump, rolls on. The cryptocurrency officially rose six figures Wednesday night, just hours after the president-elect said he intends to nominate cryptocurrency advocate Paul Atkins to be the next chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission. Bitcoin has soared since Trump won the US presidential election on Nov. 5. The asset climbed from US$69,374 on Election Day, hitting as high as US$103,713 Wednesday, according to CoinDesk. And the latest all-time high arrives just two years after
RSS