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In 2016, the parties of the Taiwan Legislative Yuan submitted drafts on the marriage equality act but were confronted with anti-LGBTQ groups. Meanwhile, three pairs of same-sex partners are also facing their own family issues. Tien-Ming and Hsiang have been in love for more than 30 years, but their love is being tested with old-age and illness. Jovi and Mindy spend most of their time protesting for marriage equality, fighting for the rights of Jovi's daughter. Gu flew from Macau to live with Shinchi but is now struggling with finances and the pressure to come out to their parents...

The director set a static, hidden camera in a small consulting room and persistently followed visits of a hundred of patients who, in the course of 2008, came to consult.

A film by Shuhei Hatano / music by Shibata / Produced by Santana, Cotoya Zakka. Your summer is endless, but the end will come.

Using an assemblage of illustrated images, Yeonu Ju explores mass gatherings in her tripartite work A Crowd. The first part, Belief, considers crowds gathered at concerts and sporting events. In Crossroads, people teem the city streets. Finally, Dinosaur presents us with the eventuality of humanity en masse: image upon image of waste. The pixelated images go in and out of focus, their unsettling instability echoing the inherent fickleness of crowds themselves.

Yen-Chao Lin travelled along the east coast of Taiwan – an area characterized by its wild nature, colonization and population exodus. The Amis is the largest of many ethnic minorities in Taiwan officially recognised as indigenous peoples. In search of different spiritual practices belonging to the indigenous people of Makuta’ay, Yen-Chao Lin places the memories of the old Amis spirit keepers on an equal footing with the practices of Daoist rituals and Presbyterian burials, allowing personal prayers to resound and collective resistance to emerge. The Spirit Keepers of Makuta’ay was shot on Super 8 film and developed by the director by hand. The effects created during the development process add an additional layer of spiritual interpretation. A miniature, an essay, an impressionistic painting.

A documentary on the different places of Chinese and Tibetan exiled intellectuals and activists.

Anthology of three stories about different people in different places.

An animated documentary exploring how a mother's abusive relationship shaped the director's own experiences in boarding school.

Snippets is a video about the sweet reluctance to become an adult in a country where everyone seems to be seeking only status symbols and advancement. Yan Junjie and his friends belong to a new Chinese generation, uncompromising and free, standing apart from mainstream Chinese society. Yan Junije attempts to capture the irrecoverable moments of youth, a time that is destined to be lost. But all he finds are snippets, fragments and pieces of a unique period of being, of the lust for life.

Documentary about the Nanjing (alt. Nanking) massacre, featuring interviews and accounts from both Japanese veterans and Chinese survivors

A unique live event restaurant in Chongqing holds a mirror to China – how long will the staff submit to the company philosophy with its authoritarian collectivism?

A 1954 documentary about Japanese fishermen aboard the "Lucky Dragon" who were irradiated by the American Castle Bravo nuclear test in the Pacific.

The Mental Traveller meditates on the passing of time, external behavior and sensory reality for five men on a psychiatric ward. The film was conceived from the director’s connections to his parents and companions as they went through states of sickness, impending death, dementia, grief and temporary insanity. At the same time, it echoes the turbulent years of political upheavals and repercussions in Thailand, resulting in a nation in a state of delirium, lunacy and trauma.

The largest recycling ground in Beijing is located north of the National Stadium (Bird's Nest), where some 30,000 Henan people live and get rich by collecting the city's garbage. People live in temporary shelters next to piles of garbage, forming a unique "garbage land". The film is made up of independent stories, depicting the process of modernisation before inevitable demolition.

Documentary about Japanese subsidies for US Forces.

Eighty candidates have passed the written section of China's rigorous civil service exam. This documentary follows them as they spend ten days and nights cloistered in a hotel preparing for the interview portion.

Thirty years ago, the women workers at Dong-Il Corporation realized the need to unite the workers struggle with the pro-democracy movement, and fought against corporations and the state. Losing their jobs as a result, the women, now in their mid-50s, are fighting another fight. Through interviews, this documentary calmly examines the struggles that these women experienced during the period. Listening to the experiences of the women as conveyed through their own words, one comes to realize the important things in life.

Going back to the places of crime scenes and urban legends, a Visual Bizarre Adventure in Daytime.

In this film, Liu Hua, a female petitioner and survivor of Masanjia Women’s Labor Camp, describes the torture she and other women suffered there.

Deepening confusion becomes a delightful experience watching this collaborative film by Daniel Jacoby and Araki Yu. The documentary observes the idiosyncratic sounds and rhythms of Ban’ei, a rare kind of draft horse race that takes place only in Obihiro, Japan. Capturing the behind-the-scenes operations of the race, the film gradually twists itself into a knot as the excited voices of the commentators merge into a frenzy of gibberish.

Xiao Jia is a painter; Xiao Yi is a singer. They are a lesbian couple. They live peacefully together and build a world of two people that is pure and beautiful, yet also fragile and self-enclosed.

Just out of college, Heewon sets off on an ‘International Internship Program’ in Australia to beef up her career resume. A self-proclaimed “global talent”, she enjoys the cosmopolitan and chic city lifestyle for a bit. Soon drained of money by the high price of life in Sydney, she gets a part-time job and rubs shoulders with other young people living abroad away from home. When the time comes to return home to Korea, she hears rumors of the big money that can be made working out on a farm and experiencing the great Australian outdoors. She decides to give it a go and rallies people to join her on this “Outback Dream”.

Documentary

Those images flow from track to crack the sea. This memory is lost. Or is the memory, which invented new. They said to each other Buzz to give daytime and night vision can listen. They are a girl who becomes a kite. And the men who tear the island on the glass. The girl, who later became Mangpor. Become lost memories become memories fabricated on. In a city that became birds. Stoles back into the infinite ocean. The mold may not recognize the language. Pictures without a source A set of memories that still existed in the dim fuzzy. If you are in the clear. The image will leave forever gone.

Focusing on Yunlin County, we see the area covered in smog and the Jhuoshushi River drying up. The film can be seen as a chronicle of the environmental disasters resulted from industrial development, which ends with the Tianjin explosions in 2015.

Shot surreptitiously by a crew operating without visas (then necessary for travel to Okinawa), this provocative film traces the legacy of Japanese colonialism, documenting Taiwanese laborers in Okinawa and then moving southward to Tayal village in Taiwan, where the anti-Japanese uprising known as the Musha Incident took place.

A small Japanese fishing village is home of a unique community for people with schizophrenia and other long term psychological and developmental disabilities.

This film is a product not of the China of today, but of Red China's Cultural Revolutionary era: a period when the most radical and histrionic thinking strove to turn China's immense population into martyrs for Chairman Mao's ideals. This film, whose original title translates to "The Great Advancement of Mao Tse-Tung's Thinking," was captured by American intelligence in the mid 1960's (who provide the simultaneous translation on the soundtrack). It must have scared the hell out of them, for the film shows Chinese soldiers engaged in strenuous training for post-nuclear attack. The great lie of this film - from the Chinese leaders to their own people - is that the radioactive fallout from a nuclear blast will not kill them. In the film's most haunting scene, we see a Chinese cavalry charge in the Gobi desert into the aftermath of an above-ground nuclear explosion. Both rider and horse are wearing gas-masks! A harrowing look at the unbending will of fanaticism.

In 2007, a 19-year-old girl wrote a letter in Vietnamese to her Korean husband. 7 years later, the letter is read in Korean.

On the Nanhai Peninsula, there is a seaside cemetery where the Yang family’s tombs are built on the coastal rocks, facing the water. The director’s grandfather’s family archives mention that he was born on this small peninsula. Around 1949, amidst the various social upheavals, the director’s grandfather and his family members faced divergent fates due to different historical issues. Two decades later, another period of unrest saw him subjected to injustice and brought about his untimely death. Like many of his generation, he left behind only scattered words and fragments of a story that slowly faded from the family’s memory. The director wanders through the lonely graves, ancestral homes and relatives’ houses on the Nanhai Peninsula, sifting through the dust-covered relics in her grandmother’s room as the objects which haunt her hometown undergo a second death.

The result of years of fieldwork and research, "The Daoxian Incident" examines the causes of armed struggle and mass killings in Dao County, Hunan, at the height of the Cultural Revolution. Between August 13 and October 17, 1967, 7,696 people were killed and 1,397 were forced to commit suicide. An additional 2,146 were permanently injured or disabled. Most of the victims were labeled “class enemies” and belonged to the so-called “Five Black Categories,” while at least 14,000 people participated in the killings. Through interviews with survivors, participants, and family members, this documentary reconstructs the complex sequence of political campaigns that culminated in one of the bloodiest episodes in the PRC's history.

Follows indigenous Dong people in a remote village in Guizhou, China.

Inspired by the Chinese internet slang 摸鱼 (mōyú) or “touching fish,” this documentary project delves into the dynamics of work and leisure within Chinese society. MoYu symbolizes a rejection of rat racing, a compromise under societal pressure, an aspiration for freedom, or simply laziness. Focusing on the delicate balance between individuals and their work, the documentary sheds light on the complexities of the Chinese work culture. Blending storytelling with striking visuals, from scenes in The Sims 4 and authentic CCTV footage to everyday moments in modern China — Touching Fish offers a compelling lens on the complexities of Chinese work culture. As it navigates themes of labor, fulfillment, and resistance, the film invites viewers to reflect on their own relationship with work and time. Touching Fish is not just a portrait of a social phenomenon — it's a conversation starter about what it means to live meaningfully in an age of burnout and overwork.

16mm film, optical color. Uses the camera with deliberate technique to record Japan's leading punk band In a style that imbeds the music in a filmic texture.

A romantic Lama poet, being influenced by materialistic China, chooses to live a secular life and gets married, thus skillfully avoids the disastrous influence of the materialism on religion.

The director's father worked as a taxi driver, with only two days off per month, to support the family's livelihood. He hoped that his melancholic mother could regain her strength. Over the course of a year, the director used the camera to re-explore and mend family relationships, while also capturing the indescribable love between his parents.

Connect with the charming children of Dongshi, Taiwan, a coastline township famous for its oysters.

the documentary short "The Stream XII" by Hiroya Sakuri (Japan)

The connection between wool and sheep is very deep. Wool is a necessary and important part of the sheep's body. Wool that protects and breathes sheep from cold in winter and strong sun in summer, rain and wind. If sheep adapt to the earth and are healthy, they will not be affected by any changes in the natural environment or weather, otherwise sheep and wool will suffer. A documentary film about the life of a sheep farm.

A documentary about folk music in the Maoshan area.

It’s about an old man, who had a rather hard life. He started off poor, then wealthy; from wealthy to unwell; And from the illness arises his determination to write.” This is what my father told me, the director to say about this film. And as the director, I documented his life which could be missed 9 years ago, and his journey, from where he lived now to his hometown, from life to death.

I used to take metro and ride bike to work during my foreign years. After years now back to my country Tainan, I find myself could only drive or choosing motor bike in the city, because there are so less regular bike lanes, and no bikes on them. It looks I was forced by the city to make the only choice to drive. I goto my 2 friends, one is the bike shop owner and the other is NCKU Urban Plan PHD. I finally understand how to bike in Tianan.

Farewell 1999 is a documentary that could move you to tears. Acclaimed director Wu Tai Ren takes viewers on a private and emotional journey contemplating the consequences of life and death, as she searches in her life for traces left by her late mother, who passed away four years ago. Wu captures her mournful self on film with a precise control over the narrative, trying to hold on to the memory of a loved one, while bidding farewell to the haunting sadness of death. Personal yet universal, the feelings conveyed in Farewell 1999 tug at the heartstrings as well as showcase Wu's talent that won her multiple international awards.

Alms is a cinematic tour through a remote mountain Chan/Zen Buddhist monastery in Southern China. Audiences are guided by the community’s Head Chef (典座 dianzuo) as he explains the traditional cultivation, distribution and ritual offering of food in this traditional Buddhist community. We follow the gathering of local fuels and farmed vegetables, and witness how living members of this community work in harmony with elements of their surrounding naturalenvironment to provide the supportive infrastructure surrounding the Meditation Hall (禪堂 Zendo/Chantang), where a group of cloistered monks devote themselves to meditation practice.

After leaving a public nursing home, Sato Masahiro lives alone in Sapporo but has such serious impairments that he requires 24-hour assistance. For that purpose, 40 social workers and volunteers come each week. The camera follows Masahiro’s life and depicts the people surrounding him. A joyful, fun and touching documentary.

Tandem Road is a documentary that follows Masato Namekawa, a veteran assistant director, and his partner Ayumi Hasegawa, on an epic road trip by motorcycle in which they try to circumnavigate the globe. Starting in Fukushima, Ayumi’s hometown, the two travelled 60,000 km through 30 unfamiliar countries over the course of 427 days. The human story at the heart of this gruelling feat is the growth of Ayumi, who wanted to start the journey to escape workplace stresses in the film industry. She initially regrets her decision to travel but the beautiful landscapes, the kind people she meets, and the bond she forms with Namekawa help her to grow.

The Isaan Record spent over 3 years following the fate of people from north-eastern of Thailand who, carrying their hopes of a better life, sought refuge as berry pickers in the forests of Finland and Sweden. They believed that "wild berries" in these civilized countries would revive their lives and help them pay off their debts, so they borrowed money to work there, following the persuasion of the Ministry of Labour and brokers. But unfortunately. They were tricked into working for free and became victims of human trafficking. After working for 3 months, some returned home with empty-handed, burdened with debt. Over the years, reports indicate that there are over 4,000 victims, leading them to form groups to demand justice. While waiting for government agencies to resolve the debt crisis resulting from being tricked into working abroad, a former minister involved in human trafficking and corruption has prospered.

The film centers on Takuji Takahashi, the third-generation chef-owner of Kinobu, who honors the deep roots of Japanese cuisine while boldly reimagining its future. A practitioner of Noh theater for over 20 years, Takahashi brings its disciplined intensity and calm precision into his high-pressure kitchen, crafting dishes that are as delicate as they are inventive. As a trained sommelier, he also collaborates with a Japanese winemaker to develop wines that pair seamlessly with his cuisine.