Dr. Wang Chun-chi (王君琦) took over the directorship from Chen Pin-chuan (陳斌全) as the third director of the Taiwan Film Institute (國家電影中心) at a handover ceremony held on Aug. 1 under the supervision of Deputy Minister of Culture Peng Chun-heng (彭俊亨), who is concurrently chairman of the institute.
The new director received her doctorate degree in Cinema-Television Critical Studies from the University of Southern California. She taught at the Department of English at National Dong Hwa University in Hualien County shortly after returning to Taiwan, with an academic history mainly focused on the portrayal of gender and sexuality as well as the cultural history of films.
In recent years, she had expanded her research areas to include Taiwanese-language cinema and filmmaking as a social practice while pushing forward film education and offering cultural materials in remote areas of Taiwan by holding film festivals and related activities.
Deputy Minister Peng pointed out that the new director is tasked with transforming the institute into an independent administrative institution from its current status as a foundation, and relocating its operations from the capital Taipei into a new building at Xinzhuang District of New Taipei City.
Her predecessor, Chen, had established the Taiwan Cinema Digital Restoration Lab (數位修復實驗室) to furnish the institute with the self-sufficient capability in restoring old film reels. Moreover, during his three-year tenure, Chen has successfully promoted Taiwan's classical movies in over 30 nations by holding over 2,000 screenings with refurbished copies.
Taiwan's restored films have regained popularity in the Southeast Asian market after the institute began launching special screening projects at partner venues in Singapore and Thailand. Chen has also brought Taiwan's classical movies and documentaries produced between the 1960s and the 1970s to France, Kosovo, Switzerland, and the United States in the form of cinema case studies.
Chen has made considerable achievements in broadening the institute's networks and connecting with comparable foreign organizations. For instance, the institute has signed a memorandum of understanding with the Korean Film Archive (KOFA) on promoting film preservation and cultural exchanges between Taiwan and South Korea, and is now a formal member of the Southeast Asia-Pacific AudioVisual Archive Association (SEAPAVAA).
Read the original press release here.