The virtual reality film "The Man Who Couldn't Leave (無法離開的人)" by director Singing Chen (陳芯宜) won the Venice Immerse Best Experience in the Venice Immersive Competition section at the 79th Venice International Film Festival on Sep. 10. The VR film tells a story about people who stood their ground and fought against the political repression in Taiwan in the 1950s.
In her acceptance speech, Chen expressed gratitude for the support from the National Human Rights Museum (NHRM) and the team's effort during the two-year shooting process. Through this film, the director hopes to make the spirit of those who sacrificed themselves live on forever.
Culture Minister Lee Yung-te (李永得) congratulated Chen and her team on winning the award, saying that it is not easy to stand out from 30 entrants at the Venice Immersive event. Lee indicated that the democracy and the value of human rights we embrace in Taiwan are built with the blood, sweat, tears, and even the life of predecessors and their families. Lee hopes that NHRM would accelerate in preserving the scarred history, focus on contemporary human rights issues, and promote universal human rights.
The NHRM, one of MOC's affiliated institutions, commissioned director Chen and The Walkers Films (行者影像文化有限公司) to make "The Man Who Couldn't Leave." The film was made possible with the assistance of professionals from the academic community and organizations of art and culture. The Ultra-high resolution 8K 360-degree video made the experiences of victims in the White Terror Period immersive to viewers to easily empathize with what happened to the sufferers.
Marking the second time that a Taiwanese VR film won at the Venice film festival after "La Camera Insabbiata (沙中的房間)" by director Huang Hsin-chien (黃心健) and artist Laurie Anderson in 2017, Chen's win demonstrates the technologies and arts in Taiwan’s film industry have reached international standards and shows that the country’s inexhaustible creative energy for cultural content production.