We might collectively inhabit a televisual age dominated by mind-numbing superhero romps and vapid rom-coms but this weekend Taipei movie buffs are in for something more substantive –– an audio-visual banquet courtesy of the 2024 SubTropical Independent Film Festival (第2屆亞熱帶獨立影展).
According to festival founders and co-organizers, American Barry Hall and Taiwanese Huang Li-ting (黃莉婷), the second edition of the film festival will follow on from where last year’s event left off, showcasing “the offbeat, the weird, the experimental, the eccentric, the starting, the uncanny and the inexplicable.”
“We’re not specific, we’re open to any genre be it drama, comedy, horror, science fiction, animation, documentary. Just as long as it’s different in some way,” Hall, who has an acting and theatre background, explains of the festival ethos.
Photo courtesy of the Subtropical Independent Film Festival
Huang, who studied film at university in Taichung, says, “What we look for is self-expression and originality.”
Building on the success of last year’s freshman festival, which took place at Like Space in Taipei’s Zhongzheng District (中正), Huang and Hall have secured a new venue to expand “the scope and range” of the festival. Beginning on Saturday at 2.30pm at Metro Link International Hall (捷韻國際廳) in Zhongshan District (中山), the festival program is divided into three sessions with talks scheduled between screenings.
“The venue is bigger and this year’s festival will be more cinematic,” Hall tells the Taipei Times. “It was a challenge last year because we were new, so filmmakers had to take a chance submitting their work to us.”
Photo courtesy of the Subtropical Independent Film Festival
Now, however, SubTropical is on the map, and will be showing an impressive 16 films from nine different countries including India, France, Germany, Sweden, India and Luxemburg, as well as two domestic productions, Again3Small and Cicada.
Japanese indie directors are also making a strong showing, with three films scheduled for the second session (Program B), which will be followed by a Q&A with visiting filmakers Takahashi Eiichi from Japan, and Hsieh Tsung-Yu (謝宗諭) and Tseng Yuan-Neng (曾元農) from Taiwan.
“We hope to give an audience to unconventional filmmakers, who often struggle to have their films seen,” Hall says, “and also to expand the range of films accessible to Taiwanese film enthusiasts.
Photo courtesy of the Subtropical Independent Film Festival
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