The Taiwan International Documentary Festival (TIDF) will kick off its 2019 tour in Taichung on Feb. 23, and then travel to 10 Taiwanese cities and counties through June with the best programs from last year's festival. Overseas screenings have also been arranged for San Francisco, Hong Kong, London, and Tokyo.
Along with the critically acclaimed titles that captured the TIDF awards last year, a total of 55 films from the 2018 TIDF program will be presented through nearly a hundred screenings and over 30 post-screening discussions. The segments include "Filmmaker in Focus" on Latvian director-screenwriter Laila Pakalniņa; "SEA of Sadness" on Southeast Asian cinema; and "Imagining the Avant-garde" on experimental films from 1960s Taiwan.
One of this year's special retrospectives will also spotlight five iconic works by Japanese documentary maestro Hara Kazuo ― "A Dedicated Life," "Emperor's Naked Army Marches On," "Extreme Private Eros: Love Song 1974," "Goodbye CP," and "Sennan Asbestos Disaster."
Hara will join other acclaimed filmmakers, including Huang Hui-chen of "Small Talk," Lau Kek-huat of "Absent without Leave," Wu Yao-tung of "Goodnight & Goodbye," and Taiwan documentary Ke Chin-yuan, winner of the 2018 TIDF Outstanding Contribution Award, in attending post-screening discussions held in Taiwan.
This year's partnering organizations and venues include Fuzhong 15 – New Taipei City Documentary Cinema; Taoyuan Arts Cinema; Arts Center of the National Tsing Hua University in Hsinchu; Dadun Cultural Center in Taichung; Changhua County Library; the National Museum of Taiwan Literature in Tainan; and the Kaohsiung Film Archive.
TIDF will also work with the San Francisco Cinematheque to hold an evening of experimental Taiwanese films on March 28 in the Bay Area, with April screenings planned for Hong Kong Baptist University. Later dates will also be announced for events co-organized with King's College London and Tokyo Image Forum.
More information on "2019 TIDF on Tour" can be found at www.tidf.org.tw and its English-language Facebook page.