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Palisian

Between Mount Kavulungan and the Gaoping River, history streams across the wilderness, coalescing the values and identities of different peoples. So begins the Pakedavai family ritual. As an 11th-generation descendant of the Pakedavai ruler family, Dabiliyan Alifu grew up in a family slate house in the Sandimen tribe. For him, the family is a constant source of education about how to live with the forest and what kind of person to become. Of Pakedavai’s 12th generation, Kang Yuan-Jin grew up in a traditional Chinese community with a Paiwan grandmother and a Chinese grandfather. Only in adulthood did he start to explore the meanings of family and personal identity.

Palisian

NR 2020
Mad Mads: Life between Love & Death

"People who have been abandoned by their family can only seek reunion with their second parent." Mads, a depression sufferer, is not accepted by her family. She wanders to find where she belongs and who will love her. After a failed suicide attempt to jump off a building, her life swings between the chaos of her symptoms and fleeting moments of happiness, continuing her journey with trauma and sequelae. Will she find the “haven” and be accepted by society this time?

Mad Mads: Life between Love & Death

NR 2024
Once Existed

Kinmen is a group of islands governed by Taiwan and a solid base for the capitalist camp during the Cold War era. Kinmen commenced its construction of military fortifications in 1958, with millions of soldiers stationed on the island. As the USSR communist bloc gradually disintegrated, Kinmen began a large-scale withdrawal of troops in 1988, placing the lives of the island’s 50,000 residents in a predicament after having relied on soldiers to earn a living for so long. With the improvements of cross-strait relations, large amounts of Chinese tourists now flood the very islands they once rained countless bombs on. Tourists from both sides of the Taiwan Strait now take group photos in front of fortifications, but will the future of the cross-strait relations be as fine as the seemly peace?

Once Existed

NR 2017
Guardians of Our Planet

Journalist Shu Meng-Lan takes her award-winning documentary series to the big screen. Filmed across 115 locations around the world over 15 years, Shu and her team have captured amazing footage of melting glaciers at the poles as well as the plight of helpless creatures living in those regions. Aiming to advocate for greater ecological awareness from a Taiwan perspective, the film is an important cautionary tale, reminding us that the fate of the polar regions is closely linked to our own.

Guardians of Our Planet

NR 2025
Realm of Reverberations

For more than two decades, internationally acclaimed artist Chen Chieh-jen has illuminated the deep impact of power on bodies and architecture. Here he explores a pair of sites built by the Japanese colonial government in the early 20th century: the Losheng Leprosy Sanatorium and the Taipei Prison. The first was on the outskirts of Taipei, the second in the heart of the city. Both were used for controlling marginal populations; both continued to operate long after the Japanese left; and both were eventually torn down for urban redevelopment. Across its four sections linking different times, places and people, Realm of Reverberations reveals cycles of construction and destruction, and the ironies of emotional attachment and historical detachment.-UCLAFilm&TV

Realm of Reverberations

NR 2017
Hip-Hop Storm

Thirty-four year-old Alun formed the first hip-hop dance group 'The Party' soon after totalitarian rule ended in Taiwan in the early 90s. The group eventually disbanded, but Alun's passion for hip-hop remained. He's about to compete in Juste Debout, a worldwide street dance competition to take place in Paris. Where will this journey take him? Eight high school students born in the 90s, and half the age of Alun, make up 'Undergradu-eight' Supported by a more open society that has come to embrace pop culture, what is the dream they're hoping to achieve through hip-hop?

Hip-Hop Storm

NR 2010
Homecoming from Phu Quoc Island

This documentary depicts the journey of displaced students and retreating troops from the Yuheng United Middle School, crossing the treacherous terrain of Guangxi's mountains into Vietnam. They were then forced into French concentration camps before being relocated to Pulau Bidong, where they established settlements and protested through hunger strikes, garnering international attention. Their story portrays the plight of displacement and eventual return to Taiwan.

Homecoming from Phu Quoc Island

NR 2024
Hard Good Life

An elderly man cooks himself some noodles and eats them straight from the pot while watching TV by himself. He dozes off at his job as a security guard. Alone since the death of his wife, the father’s daily life is filmed by his daughter. While turning her gaze on ordinary things like garbage, keys, puppies, flies and lizards, we can almost sense the strong smells of summer and the sound of thunder at night. Suddenly, the father turns and waves to us. The father-daughter bond is expressed here in very few words.

Hard Good Life

10.0 2003
Tunnel & Echoes

This documentary examines Taiwan's role within the war machinery of East Asia, and how air-raid shelters have transformed from military defense structures into part of the everyday landscape. By guiding audiences through the often-overlooked landscapes of Chiayi, the film calls for renewed attention to historical sites and explores how war has shaped urban structures and collective memory. It also invites reflection on the lasting impact of war, reminding us that war is never as distant as it seems.

Tunnel & Echoes

NR 2026
The Land in the Middle of the Pond

The Land in the Middle of the Pond makes reference to the 1950’s forced displacement of the Atayal Qara community from their ancestral territory for the construction of the Shimen Reservoir – now the main water supply for Northern Taiwan. Throughout the video, we hear the voice of an elder who recalls the events which resulted in the forced displacement of her community and the impact of diaspora. In the video we see Ciwas tracing veins that run along her limbs like rivers. During the performance, later Ciwas and other Atayal women engage in an Atayal name exchange ritual, between person and plant. This customary ritual Ciwas employs like the tracing of her bloodline at the reservoir, as a symbolic act for reconnecting with her ancestral land while affirming her identity past, present and future.

The Land in the Middle of the Pond

NR N/A
Étude

The director's pregnant sister moved to Hsinchu upon marriage and hasn't returned to Taipei in a year. Their mother hoped to tend his sister during postpartum confinement, but instead, this made their relationship deteriorate even further. The director also uses the camera to search for traces of his father, a Taiwanese businessman in mainland China who has been absent since his childhood. The film tells the story of how their family fell apart more than 30 years ago and then came back together.

Étude

NR 2021
The Road Less Traveled

After more than a decade in the financial industry, Jeff HUANG decided to leave his comfort zone at the age of 33 and changed his job from an analyst to a mixed martial artist without a regular income. Jeff walked away from it all, moved to Brazil to train. Upon his return to Taiwan, Jeff entered the professional world of MMA and became known as "The Machine". But In the face of his family's doubts and marriage crisis, will he be able to continue to follow the path he has chosen?

The Road Less Traveled

NR 2022
The Traditional Clothes of Raisinay Village

After restoring their Ceremony of Ancestral Spirits, the Atayal people of the Raisinay Village, Miaoli County, were distressed by the absence of their traditional garments. Yuma Taru, a researcher of Atayal folk costume, decided to trace back their history by conducting interviews with the elders, learning weaving techniques from them. This documentary captures the passing down of the weaving art, and the younger generation’s yearnings for revival of their traditional clothes.

The Traditional Clothes of Raisinay Village

NR 1997
The Man Who Cannot Be Excluded

In 2009, a DNA test report that "does not rule out the possibility" turned Chen Longqi from a witness to a defendant. After he was found guilty, he began to flee, fearing that he would not be able to clear his grievances in prison. Fortunately, four years and thirty days later, he met a judge who was willing to investigate again, and finally changed the verdict to not guilty. But from guilty to innocent, what he saw in front of him was the ruin of his career, heavy debts, the mental panic of long-term escape and hiding, and many people who wanted his help and were also suffering from unjust cases...

The Man Who Cannot Be Excluded

NR N/A
Homesick Eyes

Free market capitalism has not only effected the flow of capital but also the global migration of labor. Laborers cross national borders to “developed” or “developing” countries and take on low-paying job in the service sector. The growing number of international laborers and new immigrants, usually of various nations and ethnicity, has now begun to have certain impact on the host society. For example, in Taiwan, the lure if high income might subject them to the employer’s exploitations. And policy makers and employers rarely take into account their sense of displacement.

Homesick Eyes

8.0 1997