Taman-Taman (Park) (公園), an award-winning documentary about two Indonesian poets in Taiwan, is to be featured at this year’s First Look film festival in New York, the Taipei Cultural Center in New York said.
The documentary, being shown for the first time in New York, would be screened today at 6pm at the Museum of the Moving Image’s Bartos Screening Room.
The film, directed by Taiwanese director So Yo-hen (蘇育賢), follows the nighttime meetups of two Indonesian migrants in Tainan Park, where they transform their encounters with fellow migrants and stories about migrants’ struggles into poetry.
Photo: Screen grab from the Web site of Museum of the Moving Image.
In doing so, they become part of the poems themselves as the line between the narrator and the subjects becomes blurred, just as artists painting landscapes become one with their subject, So wrote in the “director’s note” he provided for the film on the Web site Taiwan Docs.
Through the artist’s touch, the paintings inevitably depart from the landscape, yielding an alternative version of the reality that could inspire yearning or induce fear, he wrote.
The documentary was the grand prize winner in the Taiwan Competition and Asian Vision Competition sections of last year’s Taiwan International Documentary Festival.
It also clinched an Outstanding Artistic Contribution Award in the Envision Competition section of last year’s International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam.
So is to attend the screening, according to the event’s Web site, although the organizers have not said whether there would be a question-and-answer (Q&A) session after the screening.
The First Look film festival, taking place from yesterday until Sunday, presents a diverse selection of major New York premieres and work-in-progress screenings, and is dedicated to introducing audiences to new art, artists and perspectives, according to the event’s Web site.
People can visit the page to find pricing details for festival passes and tickets.
Separately, eight Taiwanese movies are to be presented at this year’s Asian Pop-Up Cinema (APUC) festival taking place in Chicago from Thursday next week to April 13, with director John Hsu’s (徐漢強) supernatural comedy Dead Talents Society (鬼才之道) selected as the event’s opening film.
The Taiwanese films include five that premiered last year: Yen & Ai-Lee (小雁與吳愛麗), The Uniform (夜校女生), Hunter Brothers (獵人兄弟), Doubles Match (乒乓男孩) and Dead Talents Society.
The 2023 film Old Fox (老狐狸) would be presented for the event’s Oscars Submissions Showcase. In addition, the Taiwanese classic Growing Up (小畢的故事) from 1983 and My Favorite Season (最想念的季節) from 1985 would also be screened during the festival.
After Hong Kong’s nine entries, Taiwan’s eight-film lineup is the second largest among 17 participating countries and regions at the festival.
Yen & Ai-Lee and The Uniform are among the eight shortlisted productions vying for the first-ever Grand Jury Feature Film Award at the festival.
According to the festival’s Web site, Hsu and Dead Talents Society leading actor, Chen Bo-lin (陳柏霖), would appear on the event’s opening night and participate in a post-screening Q&A session. Chen is also set to receive the APUC’s Bright Star Award.
Meanwhile, Yen & Ai-Lee director and writer Tom Lin (林書宇) and lead actress Kimi Hsia (夏于喬) are scheduled to introduce the film and participate in a Q&A after its screening on April 6.
The Uniform director Chuang Ching-Shen (莊景燊), producer Tang Tsai-Yang (唐在揚), and lead actress Chen Yan-fei (陳?霏) would appear to discuss the film and take part in a post-screening Q&A on April 12.
The festival is dedicated to showing works from regions throughout Asia, with this year’s lineup comprising 50 films from around the world, according to the APUC’s Web site.
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