A documentary miniseries on the life of late Taiwanese painter Chen Cheng-po (陳澄波) funded by former Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmaker Pasuya Yao (姚文智) might air internationally, Yao said.
Yao quit politics after failing to win the Taipei mayoral election in 2018 and established thuannTaiwan Film Corp, which aims to tell the stories of victims of political persecution during the Martial Law era.
The studio’s first film is Liu Ma Gou No. 15 (流麻溝十 五號), which tells the story of female political prisoners held on Green Island (綠島) during the 1950s. Its second project — a miniseries on Chen and his wife, Chang Chieh (張捷), tentatively titled “The Women Who Hid Paintings” (藏畫的女人) — cost more than NT$100 million (US$3.39 million).
Photo: Screen grab from the Chen Cheng-po Cultural Foundation Web site
Chen is the first Taiwanese painter to have one of his works sell for more than NT$200 million at auction.
The documentary is named after Chen’s wife because it draws inspiration from a photograph taken 75 years ago, Yao said.
The photo shows Chen’s body lying on an unmounted wooden door on which he was carried home after being killed by the then-Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) regime during the 228 Incident.
The door was propped up by Chang — who appears underneath the door in the picture — so that the photographer could get a good picture, Yao said, adding that Chang’s commitment to photographing her husband’s body as evidence was “moving.”
Chen had been paraded through the streets and executed for what the KMT claimed was “rebellion and riot,” and as nobody dared help move the body with a stretcher, the family had to remove a door and use that instead, Yao said.
Yao said his company has worked with the Chen Cheng-po Cultural Foundation to make the series on Chen, and invited well-known screenwriter Shih Fang-ju (施芳如) to write the script.
Meanwhile, filming for Liu Ma Gou No. 15 has been completed and the movie is in the post-production stage, he said.
“We plan to crowdfund over the next two months, but the release date is still up in the air due to the [COVID-19] pandemic,” he said.
The 228 Incident refers to a crackdown launched by the then-KMT regime against civilian demonstrations following an incident in Taipei on Feb. 27, 1947. The event was part of the White Terror era, during which thousands of Taiwanese were arrested, imprisoned and executed.
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