The Taiwan International Documentary Festival is to showcase what is presumably the biggest retrospective of Philippine cinema ever shown outside the Philippines, the organizer said in a statement on Friday.
The main program of the festival, titled “Necessary Fictions: Negotiating Realities in Post-national Philippine Documentaries,” would be a comprehensive retrospective of Philippine cinema, featuring 46 films organized in 11 sub-themes from 32 directors that span 40 years of cinematic history, the Taiwan Film and Audiovisual Institute said.
The selection of works showcase independent Philippine cinema in all its diversity by exploring the country’s history, culture, folklore, religion, ethnicities and geography, presenting multiple realities that go far beyond the impression of a single country, the institute said.
The extensive section would also offer a glimpse into the creative trajectory of independent Philippine cinema through online forums and screenings, it added.
Many internationally renowned directors are also featured in the main program, including Lav Diaz, 2016 laureate of the Venice Film Festival’s Golden Lion; Raymond Red, who won the Golden Palm at the 2000 Cannes Film Festival in the Short Film category; and Kidlat Tahimik, widely regarded as the “father of Philippine independent cinema,” it said.
One of the films featured, Tahimik’s Why Is Yellow the Middle of the Rainbow? from 1994, uses the rainbow as a metaphor for the changes in the Philippines, reflecting on the relationship between the individual and the nation, providing a new interpretation for the term “third-world cinema,” the statement said.
Another feature, Sacred Ritual of Truth from 2002, documents the return of Manila-based director Auraeus Solito to his hometown on Palawan Island to learn about his own indigenous cultural background.
The program is jointly planned with independent Philippine curator and film programmer Merv Espina, the institute said.
Festival program director Wood Lin (林木材) said Espina chose the term “necessary fictions” to sum up the powerful and creative works to be shown, which are representative of aesthetic choices that filmmakers had to make in the face of harsh reality.
The 13th edition of the festival is to be held from May 6 to 15 at four Taipei venues — the Taiwan Film and Audiovisual Institute, SPOT Huashan, Viewshow Cinemas Taipei Qsquare and Taiwan Contemporary Culture Lab.
The festival is to present more than 150 films, as well as public and educational programs such as question-and-answer sessions, workshops and exhibitions.
China has reserved offshore airspace in the Yellow Sea and East China Sea from March 27 to May 6, issuing alerts usually used to warn of military exercises, although no such exercises have been announced, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported yesterday. Reserving such a large area for 40 days without explanation is an “unusual step,” as military exercises normally only last a few days, the paper said. These alerts, known as Notice to Air Missions (Notams), “are intended to inform pilots and aviation authorities of temporary airspace hazards or restrictions,” the article said. The airspace reserved in the alert is
NAMING SPAT: The foreign ministry called on Denmark to propose an acceptable solution to the erroneous nationality used for Taiwanese on residence permits Taiwan has revoked some privileges for Danish diplomatic staff over a Danish permit that lists “Taiwan” as “China,” Eric Huang (黃鈞耀), head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Department of European Affairs, told a news conference in Taipei yesterday. Reporters asked Huang whether the Danish government had responded to the ministry’s request that it correct the nationality on Danish residence permits of Taiwanese, which has been listed as “China” since 2024. Taiwan’s representative office in Denmark continues to communicate with the Danish government, and the ministry has revoked some privileges previously granted to Danish representatives in Taiwan and would continue to review
More than 6,000 Taiwanese students have participated in exchange programs in China over the past two years, despite the Mainland Affairs Council’s (MAC) “orange light” travel advisory, government records showed. The MAC’s publicly available registry showed that Taiwanese college and university students who went on exchange programs across the Strait numbered 3,592 and 2,966 people respectively. The National Immigration Agency data revealed that 2,296 and 2,551 Chinese students visited Taiwan for study in the same two years. A review of the Web sites of publicly-run universities and colleges showed that Taiwanese higher education institutions continued to recruit students for Chinese educational programs without
A bipartisan group of US senators has introduced a bill to enhance cooperation with Taiwan on drone development and to reduce reliance on supply chains linked to China. The proposed Blue Skies for Taiwan Act of 2026 was introduced by Republican US senators Ted Cruz and John Curtis, and Democratic US senators Jeff Merkley and Andy Kim. The legislation seeks to ease constraints on Taiwan-US cooperation in uncrewed aerial systems (UAS), including dependence on China-sourced components, limited access to capital and regulatory barriers under US export controls, a news release issued by Cruz on Wednesday said. The bill would establish a "Blue UAS
RSS