A special showcase of Taiwanese cinema will be held at the Yogyakarta, Festival Film Dokumenter (FED) — the first documentary film festival in Indonesia and Southeast Asia. "Taiwan Documentary: Into the Time Capsule" comprising 6 documentaries from 1960s through 2016 will be available from Nov. 5 through 12.
"The Mountain" by director Richard Yao-chi Chen in 1966 follows three art college students as they enjoy an excursion into the mountains. As the song "California Dreamin" plays, the three talk about their artistic ideals, how only KMT party members were eligible for scholarships, and their view on the Vietnam War.
"The Prophet" by director Su Yu-hsien in 2016 centers on the dialogue between a couple sitting in the audience of a play. When this piece was first shown in 1965, director Chen of the aforementioned film reworked it with the actors on stage. 51 years later, actors Chuang Ling and Liu Ying-shang are invited back to the theater to recreate the groundbreaking original.
"Small Talk" by director Huang Hui-chen in 2016 culminated from two decades of compiling an autobiographical documentary to understand her strained relationship with a closeted mother. Her debut feature captured the top prize at the 2017 Teddy Awards, which honors films with queer themes at Germany's Berlinale.
"Modern Poetry Exhibition / 1966" by photographer Chang Chao-tang in 1966 documents an eponymous showcase in 1966 that saw Chang and fellow artists Huang Hua-cheng, Long Shi-liang, and Huang Yong-song choose their favorite modern poems and transform them into imagery. The 12-minute documentary is a time capsule capturing some of the younger works and moments of these artists.
"Goodnight & Goodbye" by director Adon Wu in 2018 is a one-person journey seeking the origin for his creation. While driving on the freeway to Chiayi County's Puzi region, Wu Yao-tung and Tom continue an unfinished conversation from two decades ago. The dialogue falters; clearly they live in two different worlds, and the dark specter entangled within the depths of their minds has never lingered far.
"Experiment 002 (Extracted from Video Documentation of the Symposium of 'Theatre Quarterly')" by director Huang Hua-cheng in 1994 is the only film that remains after he passed away in 1996. It is a recording of the "Theater Quarterly" seminar where Huang showed his 8mm film "Experiment 002," and the seminar proceedings that unfolded at the Chinese Taipei Film Archive (now Taiwan Film Institute).
The curators hope that the snippets of life captured in these documentary films will provide a window inviting Indonesian audiences to look into the long history of Taiwan. Please visit https://ffd.or.id/en/ffd-2018/taiwan-documentary-into-the-time-capsule/ for more information.