Department of Cultural Affairs

Photo from SPOT-Taipei Film House
From left, Wu Fang-yu, Executive Director of SPOT-Taipei Film House; Venus Chen, Executive Director of Taiwan Film and Culture Association; curator Kelly Yang; Chen Yu-hsin, Deputy Commissioner of the Department of Cultural Affairs; actress-writer Lien Yu-han; and director Hsu Hung-yuan at the May 9 press conference for the Taipei Literature Film Festival.

By Yali Chen
 
The 2019 Taipei Literature Film Festival, organized by Taipei City’s Department of Cultural Affairs (DOCA) and Taiwan Film and Culture Association, is set to run from May 24 until June 6.
 
Now on its 10th year, the festival features 17 films and 39 screenings. Two films have been digitally restored and will be screened in its original language with Chinese subtitles.
 
Taiwanese young actress-writer Lien Yu-han (連俞涵) was invited to be a special guest at this year’s event. The festival curator Kelly Yang (楊元鈴) praised Lien as the best spokesperson for the 10th film festival because of her outstanding skills in drama and writing. Yang hopes that the event would not only discuss literature and cinema, but also explore the relationship between writers and readers.
 
In her speech, the DOCA deputy commissioner Chen Yu-hsin (陳譽馨) said that this year’s festival will open with “Walk Along with Words” (拾字前行). Directed by Hsu Hung-yuan (許紘源), it is a 65-minute documentary for the 20th anniversary of the Taipei Literature Award.
 
Hsu combined non-narrative and drama techniques, and had previous award winners such as Lei Hsiang (雷驤), Hung Ai-chu (洪愛珠), Ku Yu-ling (顧玉玲), Liao Hung-chi (廖鴻基), and Lo Yi-chin (駱以軍) describe the history and life changes in Taipei.
 
One highlight of the festival is Indian filmmaker Satyajit Ray’s creations. His name may be unfamiliar to Taiwanese audiences, but curator Yang quoted Japanese filmmaker Akira Kurosawa as saying that not to have seen the cinema of Ray means existing in the world without seeing the sun or the moon.
 
Ray directed 37 films, including feature films, documentaries and shorts. He was also a screenwriter, illustrator, and music composer. The Apu Trilogy comprises three films directed by Ray: “Song of the Little Road,” “The Unvanquished,” and “The World of Apu.” The three films together with Ray’s other four movies, “The Lonely Wife,” “The Coward,” “The Big City,” and “The Hero,” will be shown on the big screen for the first time in Taiwan.
 
Film lovers cannot miss to watch “Siao Yu” (少女小漁), “A Passage to the Forest” (走往森林的路), “Lord of the Flies,” and “Death in Venice.”