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Around one hundred million sharks are killed every year because of overfishing. Only roughly thirty of them can be saved, which gives them a survival rate of one in three million. In 2016, at a fishing port in Tatung County, Taiwan, two pregnant tiger sharks were caught by local fishermen, and 75 shark pups were rescued. An unprecedented release operation thus began. Related Clips

Mount Lu or Lushan, also known as Kuanglu (匡庐) in ancient times, is situated in the northern part of Jiangxi province in southeastern China, and is one of the most renowned mountains in the country. The oval-shaped mountains are about 25 km long and 10 km wide, and neighbors Jiujiang city and the Yangtze River to the north, Nanchang city to the south, and Poyang Lake to the east. Its highest point is Dahanyang Peak (大汉阳峰), reaching 1,474 m above sea level, and is one of the hundreds of steep peaks that towers above a sea of clouds that encompass the mountains for almost 200 days out of the year. Mount Lu is known for its grandeur, steepness, and beauty, and is part of Lushan National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1996, and a prominent tourist attraction, especially during the summer months when the weather is cooler.

This documentary is about a group of people led by the anti-high artistic attitude of the underground culture of the end century during the Mid-Autumn Festival in 1995 for three consecutive days and two nights, supported by the unprecedented courage of the Taipei County Cultural Center; the planning is broken.

Taipei 4-Way is a film on Taipei and the people of Taipei directed by four artists working in various art fields such as animation, installation documentary and experimental film. The film looks at Taipei as a whole through four sections titled' enTAIPEItrance,"traTAIPEIverse','adTAIPEIhere', and 'exTAIPEIit'.

In this documentary, director Tang records his own son's birth and growing up, his father's recovering from a stroke and a nostalgic trip home to China. (In the 1940's his father evacuated with the Nationalist troops to Taiwan after it lost the Mainland to the Communist in the war. It wasn't until 1980's were people allowed to go home to visit in Mainland China). From his search for the earliest memory of life, with a close observation and sensitivity, he exams the parallels of the different lives of a different time. In his previous work, "HOW DEEP IS THE OCEAN," director Tang ends it with the ultrasound image of his unborn child, representing the beginning of a new life. With this work, "HOW HIGH IS THE MOUNTAIN," it is rather a beginning of a series of questions about life and a continuation of examination of his own life and the longing of a perfect world.

Sculptor Tu-shui Huang (1895-1930) was way ahead of his time, combining traditional Chinese themes with Western influences that he learned while studying at the art academy in Tokyo. This earned him a reputation as the “founder of modern Taiwanese sculpture,” but he also drew criticism.

YouYou and Kat, two Burmese girls entering their final year of high school, are preparing for the overseas Chinese student exams that may take them from Yangon to Taiwan. Power cuts, shrill whistles, demanding exams, and teenage anxieties shape their everyday lives. Kat is driven and ambitious; YouYou is diligent, determined not to disappoint those around her. As Myanmar’s civil war quietly encroaches on the city through rumours of conscription and parental worry, the girls push themselves to maintain discipline. As the exams approach, they wonder whether studying abroad truly leads to freedom, or to another kind of uncertainty.

Hundreds of offshore wind turbines are being built in proximity to the habitat of endangered white dolphins, as a cetacean scholar tries to find a balance between development and marine ecology.

Chishang Township is known for its superior rice quality, golden rice waves, and unique cultural ambiance. From its initial struggles to the historic achievement of cultivating the highest-priced rice, the film traces the town's rich history and profound humanistic depth.

This is a journey in which the creator of this documentary tries to find the origin for his creation. While driving on the freeway to Puzi, Chiayi County, WU Yao-tung and Tom continue a conversation left unfinished two decades ago. The dialogue falters; clearly they live in two different worlds. After traversing this journey for 20 years, the dark spectre entangled within the depths of the mind is never driven away.

My work is an attempt to combine the relationship between historicism, commodity totem worship and political semantics. I do not intend to respond to questions about political correctness, but also try to show the unsolved issues of art itself. What I care about is how they find enough channels between history, reality and the public. In short, my creation is the crystallization of personal complexity. As long as the perception that can be obtained through the idea, it can be regarded as a style in the development of my personality. All the warriors related to experience may become artistic associations. They are the result of profound meaning and endless reproduction. There is a mysterious place. ---Dean-E Mei's self-report

A half-moon on the blue sky. A quiet offering connects the unreachable world with the physical ground. An elegy for the filmmaker's grandma.

Fu-Xuan is my classmate and friend. As a man who yearns for freedom, he has a cat. From January 12 to January 18, 2024, Fuxuan wanted to take me to meet Sesame, but she ran away.

The lives of Sunny Jacobs and Peter Pringle were torn apart when they were wrongly convicted of killing police officers—Sunny in the U.S, Peter in Ireland. Each were jailed for crimes they did not commit, only be exonerated after more than a decade each behind bar. In the aftermath of unimaginable hardship, by chance, they found one another and became the world’s only wrongfully convicted, death sentenced, cop-killer accused, exonerated and married couple!

The Accidental Politician is a ten-year documentary journey following three young Taiwanese activists who emerged from the 2014 “Sunflower Movement” and stepped into the complex world of local politics. Fueled by ideals but confronted with entrenched power, political deals, and disillusionment, their stories unfold like real-life quests through Taiwan’s democratic landscape. As they struggle between hope and burnout, the film reveals not only the cost of participation, but the unfinished nature of democracy itself. With the 2024 “Bluebird Movement” weaving the past into the present, this is not just a portrait of three individuals—it’s a timely reflection on the fragile, ongoing experiment of democracy in Asia.

Sounds of Love and Sorrow lets the eerie sounds of the Paiwan flutes including the nose flute, which legend says imitates the call of the deadly hundred-pace snake, mix in with the recollections of tribal elders and traditional tales to present a rich background of Paiwan life in Taiwan. Tribal elders recall the days of the youth and their romances. They tell of the creation of the Paiwan people, and lament the end of tribal life, crushed by the irresistible and contradictory forces of government policies and alien cultural influences. Talking of love, both the charm and cruelty of a traditional society are revealed. For many of the Paiwan, love may be a high point of a young life – but it is also the gateway to sorrow. But in the end, it is the high spirits, the playful romances and the family spirit of the Paiwan which shine through.

The factories which were abandoned, the temporaries who were employed on a temporary basis, and the words were painted on the edge of the wall of the city. They were dirty humble but very strong, it reflects the real situation of "workers" in the social class. These factories, workers, and wall were utterly discarded after being used up, without any responsibility and affection. They were "relics" of the modern industrial process, and now left behind in the edge of the city and barren. We try to record the imminent disappearance of these graffiti walls, abandoned factories, are the temporary workers in an atypical way. Because of these images usually remind us that the city hides a group of incomplete consciousness and the body, they are in the search for a possible survival, a possible aesthetic, a desolate before the disappearance.

Che Ling means “pull bell sound”. This ancient Chinese juggling is a form of yoyo, once popular in Europe as “diabolo”. Two youngsters take turns exhibiting their skills, with the joyous involvement of their whole body. Almost unnoticed, the dominant hand controls the acceleration – counterclockwise – and directs the trick; the other maintains a responsive balance; it’s as if the magic was drummed into existence.

At the ripe age of 102, Chinhua Ho Chen, “Miss Golden Blossom”, takes center stage. In 1938, her voice graced the tracks of “Endless Spring” and “The Camellia Lady”, released by Victory Records, under the stage name “Yingying”. She also stands as the first among renowned female singers of Taiwan’s popular ditties. Through Miss Chinhua, we hear the echoes of the once renowned singer Yingying, preserving the distinct voices of Taiwan in popular music and songs.

Day after day, bars of sunset pass the kitchen. Lamps carry on when the sky gets dark. The frame finds its balance. Life in work and work in life.

Eight years in the making, the film focuses mostly on Ming Chuan University’s alumni cheerleading team preparing for their alma mater’s 60th anniversary celebration in 2017, capturing their practices, team building exercises, meetings and other activities with endless playful banter.

On 1st July 2022, as Hong Kong marks the 25th anniversary of its handover, tropical storm Chaba lashes the city. Cyclone captures the resilience and vibrancy of Hong Kong people as they navigate the day amidst historical significance and natural upheaval.

The person in the photo is my grandma. She passed away… After developing this roll of film, I found out this is the only portrait. My grandma is blurred in this photo. I neither knew the reason what happened to me back then. The distance between me and Grandma has always been so far, and the closest one. It's the moment when our eyes meet in the camera.

How does a dream become a reality after 10 years? Prof. Cheng and his students at the National Taiwan University built a solar car, and the team competed in the 2005 World Solar Challenge in Australia. They overcame great difficulties along the way, and achieved fifth place in the 3,000-km race through the Outback. However, the finishing line was certainly not the end of their story. For More Sun II continues their story and shows us where they are heading NOW.

A voyage to the northern border of Taiwan — the eponymous Beigu Islet, a sea rock roughly 300sqft submerged under water half of the time — delves into regional histories, the gaze on borderline landscapes, and the ambivalent state of Taiwanese territory and subjectivity.

Lin Huizong often drives north to see his wife, Xu Yu'e, at the Medical College of Fuzhou University. Xu Yu'e is a "dissection teacher", that is, a deceased person who donated his body to be used as anatomy class teaching materials. In Asia, which attaches great importance to the burial of the deceased's body, doing so often requires facing the reluctance of relatives. And what changes will this dedication bring to the family, teachers and students of the medical school? What does "alive" mean? When the end of life is not physical destruction, but the impact left on future generations, how will people decide the color of their lives?

I grew up in a broken family, which was fragmented due to my father's emotional violence. Communication conflicts between my parents affected me and my brother under the same roof. During my upbringing, the four of us in the family became more distant and were unable to communicate properly with each other. As I grew older, I explored my gender identity, but found it difficult to balance my identification with my original family, so I decided to face why my family became like this. With the help of a camera, I opened up my own heart and the hearts of my family members, and found a way for each of us to express ourselves.

At the peak of his career as a choreographer, Bulareyaung felt lost. He returned to Taitung to work with young indigenous performers. These mostly untrained dancers are fulfilling their dreams in their homeland, and their free-spirited personalities remind him of his youth. Surrounded by dancers who feel like family, Bulareyaung gradually discovers that returning to his indigenous community through dance rekindles the child within him.

In 1998, Wuqiu was marked as a Nuclear Waste Disposal site despite protests. Islanders question the choice: 'Why dump it here? Why not bury gold?' As a military zone, public access is denied, leaving us defenseless if the government acts further.

In the past fifteen years, the Asian art market has exploded. Chinese collectors now spend more money in auction than Americans and Brits, while a new generation of Asian artists are reshaping the world’s artistic palate. My Dear Art depicts the wonders and absurdities of the Asian art market. From China, to Singapore to London, it profiles the artists, collectors, gallerists and experts who are changing the face of the art business forever and asks fundamental questions about the value and role of art in modern society.

We encountered the dogs on the forays through Pristina’s streets. At night, we melded into the canine throngs, shadowing their movements until they dispersed and vanished. The residents imparted a saga of these dogs: in the late 1990s, as Serbian troops and Albanian insurgents clashed, domestic dogs were cast adrift on the battleground streets. Ever since, Pristina has been a tableau of roaming dog packs, with sporadic human-dog confrontations.

A series of documentaries that aim to introduce important Chinese writers to the next generation and to preserve and promote the works of literary masters. The episode "I Remember" is directed by novelist Lin Junying, who has had a deep friendship with the Zhu family for over 40 years. The film focuses the second generation of daughters Zhu Tianwen, Zhu Tianxin, Zhu Tianyi and son-in-law Tang Nuo, who together co-founded the "Sansan Bookstore".

Dremedrema is the chief heir of her tribe. Being the eldest, she therefore, must accept her inheritance of the position and status according to the tradition.Though her mother and children hope that she would disavow the obligation. Even Dremedrema had run away from her tribe once, her ancestral spirits has never given up on her. She is a tribal chief who doesn’t speak the native tongue. At the same time she is a devoted single mother of three. She is a chief without her traditional tribal family house, unable to live within the tribe. She misses home. But despite ten years’ effort, it is a home that she cannot easily return to.

In the 1990s, Chinese composer and educator Bao Yuankai began composing Western-style symphonic pieces rooted in traditional folk music. One of his acclaimed pieces is Sketches of Taiwan, which Bao was inspired to write after falling in love with Taiwan’s people and culture. Tsui Yung-Hui follows as he retraces his musical journey, decades-long love affair with Taiwanese culture and how he came up with brilliant, groundbreaking work that artfully bridges East and West.

A fascinating documentary, shot in the mountainous north of Burma. No filmmaker is welcome there, because, against the background of a civil war, the jade miners enter the deserted mines illegally. With the aid of filming locals, however, Midi Z was able to compile this portrait. Getting rich quick turns out to be hard and risky work Jade has always been a valuable commodity in Asia. In the mountains in the north of Burma there are valuable deposits of jade. The area forms part of Kachin State, inhabited by many ethnic groups which found themselves embroiled in the Civil War in 2010 with the Burmese government. Jade mining was halted because of the conflict. Thousands of workers, however, went to the war zone in order to dig for illegal jade. It turned the region into a no-go area and the filmmaker Midi Z, who had so far made feature films in Burma, saw no opportunity to go and film there. It was far too dangerous. © iffr.com

There’s a sense of being hollowed out slowly and deeply, as if everything is happening all over again, yet it exists only within the images. The life within the images keeps rolling and reminding me that I no longer possess that time — that good time has already slipped away.

On the way up Yushan takes the journeys of Mr. Wu Rong-Fu and Mr. Lin Chang-An as the axes of narrative. The two individuals had some "modifying" on the top of Yushan. Their lives are intimately tied with Yushan. The personal narratives branched out along the way, the unexpected events on the halfway, and the anonymous landscapes, the mountain of memories via hands and materials as well as imaginations and recollections. Though they never meet, through the film, they'd have a chance to walk aside.

[The name "Hong Yi" not only represents a local "art" style that has attracted much attention in Taiwan in recent years, but also allows us to witness from a life course that belongs to the "anomalous" features of contemporary society. ]

This is a story about indigenous people's land rights. In order to learn more about the history of the Atayal people’s migration, the director traces the journey of the Atayal ancestors.

A Taiwanese student film paying tribute to John Lennon's sudden death won the outstanding 8mm documentary award at the 1982 Golden Harvest Awards.

The severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) broke out at Heping Hospital in Taiwan in 2003. The government decided to isolate the hospital and asked all staff member to return. Dr. Chou defied the return order. Following Dr. Chou's lawsuit against the government, an inconvenient truth in this affected hospital was discovered.

CAFÉ TOGO looks at the efforts to change street names with colonial connotations in the so-called Afrikanisches Viertel (African Quarter) in Berlin-Wedding. According to Berlin’s street law, every street named after a person honors that person. Petersallee, Lüderitzstraße, and Nachtigalplatz bear the names of persons whose biographies are tainted by the blood of the victims of German colonialism. According to the law, streets that do not correspond to today’s understanding of democracy and human rights should be renamed.

On the Matsu Islands, young wrestlers enjoy the moment of victory or defeat and use wrestling to fight against their boring life. But "finding a way out" is always the most difficult issue just like Matsu in the middle of the troubled strait.

An experimental documentary which opens with a story of my family: my American aunt found a painting of my grandmother by chance, in a random Chinese restaurant in the middle of nowhere - she said she cried. By tracing this story and reproducing its meaning, the film wonders through different topics: the construction of the Cold War, USA and Taiwan relations, different generations of Chinese diaspora since the 1950s, contemporary immigration and cross-nation fluidity, family romances, religion, and ancestors...

How have one poet and his single book of poetry from the last century continued to inspire people today? A Life That Sings follows the legendary poet Ya Hsien from Vancouver to Nanyan, to the mobile library from his childhood and to the basement of his current home. Through his collection of books and love letters, the film unearths the treasure trove abound with stories of Ya Hsien's life.

Step into the body of a young Taiwanese man to roam the steamy rooms and red-lit corridors of a surreal gay sauna—with thin mattresses, shared showers and lockers holding secrets.

In 1999, the Indigenous Culture Club at the National Taiwan University held a series of annual ceremony activities as a tribute to traditional indigenous rituals. Unfamiliar with their native languages and cultures, however, the student organizers found themselves in an awkward position that brought them into conflict with the school administration. Where would they find the “salt”, an in-depth understanding of their cultural identities and backgrounds?