This year’s Vancouver Taiwanese Film Festival (VTWFF) began on Friday with an opening gala at the VIFF Centre in downtown Vancouver and featured the premiere of a short film produced by young Taiwanese Canadians.
This year, VTWFF’s theme “honoring tradition, igniting innovation” showcased famous international blockbusters and films created by young Taiwanese Canadians with the aim of promoting Taiwan, the organizers said on Instagram on Friday.
Among the dignitaries present at the opening gala were Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Vancouver Director-General Liu Lih-hsin (劉立欣), British Columbia Minister of Municipal Affairs Anne Kang (康安禮), and Vancouver City councilors Sarah Kirby-yung (楊瑞蘭) and Lenny Zhou (周楠).
Photo: CNA
Charlene Liu (夏琳), the festival’s chairperson, said the film selection committee did not choose a well-known movie as the opener, but instead picked a short film titled Unspoken that was made by young Taiwanese Canadian filmmakers.
The film depicts a young woman in a Taiwanese immigrant family who finds herself “caught between the pull of tradition and the allure of modern love,” the film’s synopsis said.
“Her parents, eager to preserve their cultural heritage, attempt to steer her towards a relationship with a family friend’s son — someone they believe aligns with their expectations,” it said.
“As subtle pressures and quiet conflicts build, she must navigate the unspoken tensions within her family,” it said.
Apple Chang (張郁柔), the film’s producer, said that all of the production team and actors involved in the film were ethnic Taiwanese who had either been born in Canada or immigrated to the country during their childhood.
“The Taiwanese language is spoken in two-thirds of the movie,” Chang said. “In the process of pursuing Taiwanese language and Taiwanese culture, everyone found it very interesting and hoped that more people would get to know Taiwan.”
In her opening remarks at the festival, Liu Lih-hsin praised the vitality and innovation of the young filmmakers, who she said can be a catalyst for cross-cultural understanding.
This year, the two-day film festival’s lineup includes Vive l’Amour by award-winning director Tsai Ming-liang (蔡明亮), Life of Pi, a 2012 adventure-drama directed and produced by two-time Oscar-winning director Ang Lee (李安), Old Fox by Hsiao Ya-chuan (蕭雅全), who won the 60th Golden Horse Best Director Award last year for the film, and But First, Coffee, directed by Philip Shih (施文翰).
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