Though it was originally just a compilation of shorts for independent filmmakers to show their 16mm films, Purely 16 (純16) has become a synonym over the last three years for a new film genre in Taiwan -- representing raw, original and cutting edge works made with limited budgets.
The third Purely 16 is not just a carnival for independent filmmakers to have fun, however, it is also being seen as a cradle for Taiwan's up-and-coming talents.
This year, Purely 16 has selected 16 films (16 by coincidence, apparently), including five works of fiction, six documentaries, two animations films, two experimental films and one yet-to-be-announced closing film. Eighty percent of the films are made by filmmakers born in the 1970s and the 1980s.
PHOTO COURTESY PURELY 16
"This event provides the first opportunity for exposure of these films, with more screening times and longer showing periods," said Lee Yin-yi (李穎儀), coordinator of the film festival.
"Many of the films have won awards at the recent Taipei Film Festival, or Golden Horse Awards, in the short film section. But they don't usually get to be seen by a wider audience."
To ensure movie fans enjoy the films in a safe environment, Lee said the cinema has been sterilized with photo catalysts using nano technology, specially for the festival.
"We will also test your temperature at the door," she said.
Those who liked Cheng Wen-tang's (鄭文堂) Venice-winning film, Somewhere Over the Dreamland (夢幻部落) should not miss his 16mm short filmBadu's Homework (風中的小米田), a 37-minute film about an Aboriginal kid's adventure finding the millet rice field, which represents Aboriginal life in the past.
It is a fairy-tale-like story told through the eyes of Aboriginal kids, about an Aboriginal culture gradually eroded by modern life.
Distance is another surprising short fiction, by 20-year-old Leste Chen (陳正道). It's a simple story about a teenage couple struggling with the college entrance exams.
They want to separate for a while to study hard for the exam, but fate keeps drawing them to each other, in bus stops, small eateries and libraries. In just 20 minutes, Chen expresses his talent with smooth digital-camera work, smart dialogue and excellent handling of his actors.
Parachute Kid is Tom Lin's (林書宇) 70-minute feature film.
It depicts the life of "little overseas students" (小留學生) in Los Angeles. They are teenagers sent by their Taiwanese parents to the US to study and pursue a "better life."
Little do the parents know that the kids join local gangs, sell drugs, but never learn English. Some cannot even communicate well with their ABC (American born-Chinese) girlfriends.
Carry the Paramount of Jade Mountain On My Back (揹起玉山最高峰) is an impressive documentary that one should not miss. The film traces the little-known story of two aging Aborigines and their careers as mountain guides in the 1950s. When the sport of mountain climbing began to develop in Taiwan, climbers were heavily dependent on the help of Aborigines. They not only found routes, they also found water, camping sites and most importantly carried the supplies of the climbers.
The two guides' proudest memory is of their experience carrying the 100kg statue of deceased revolutionary hero Yu Yu-jen (于右任) up the peak of Mount Jade, which became the mountain's landmark.
Sadly, their health deteriorated because of hard labor and the statue was destroyed by climbers over the years.
Crouching Dog, Hidden Chicken Part I: Bark (狗跳雞飛之一: 狗幹) is an amusing documentary by Chen Shou-yi (陳碩儀).
Chen tells the story of his friend, who runs a debt-collecting company, about his daily life and hanging tough. The film also depicts an apparently common problem for debt-collectors -- difficulty finding girlfriends.
Performance Notes:
Purely 16 runs from today through May 30 at the Carnival Cinema, 8F, 52, O-mei Street, Taipei (台北市峨嵋街52號8樓).
Tickets: NT$150, available at Acer Ticketing outlets.
For more program information: www.filmism.com/purely16.
In 2020, a labor attache from the Philippines in Taipei sent a letter to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs demanding that a Filipina worker accused of “cyber-libel” against then-president Rodrigo Duterte be deported. A press release from the Philippines office from the attache accused the woman of “using several social media accounts” to “discredit and malign the President and destabilize the government.” The attache also claimed that the woman had broken Taiwan’s laws. The government responded that she had broken no laws, and that all foreign workers were treated the same as Taiwan citizens and that “their rights are protected,
March 16 to March 22 In just a year, Liu Ching-hsiang (劉清香) went from Taiwanese opera performer to arguably Taiwan’s first pop superstar, pumping out hits that captivated the Japanese colony under the moniker Chun-chun (純純). Last week’s Taiwan in Time explored how the Hoklo (commonly known as Taiwanese) theme song for the Chinese silent movie The Peach Girl (桃花泣血記) unexpectedly became the first smash hit after the film’s Taipei premiere in March 1932, in part due to aggressive promotion on the streets. Seeing an opportunity, Columbia Records’ (affiliated with the US entity) Taiwan director Shojiro Kashino asked Liu, who had
The recent decline in average room rates is undoubtedly bad news for Taiwan’s hoteliers and homestay operators, but this downturn shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone. According to statistics published by the Tourism Administration (TA) on March 3, the average cost of a one-night stay in a hotel last year was NT$2,960, down 1.17 percent compared to 2023. (At more than three quarters of Taiwan’s hotels, the average room rate is even lower, because high-end properties charging NT$10,000-plus skew the data.) Homestay guests paid an average of NT$2,405, a 4.15-percent drop year on year. The countrywide hotel occupancy rate fell from
In late December 1959, Taiwan dispatched a technical mission to the Republic of Vietnam. Comprising agriculturalists and fisheries experts, the team represented Taiwan’s foray into official development assistance (ODA), marking its transition from recipient to donor nation. For more than a decade prior — and indeed, far longer during Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) rule on the “mainland” — the Republic of China (ROC) had received ODA from the US, through agencies such as the International Cooperation Administration, a predecessor to the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). More than a third of domestic investment came via such sources between 1951
RSS