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Archive / Preserving Taiwan’s Historic Sites

In the late 1970s, public concern over cultural heritage preservation began to emerge in Taiwan. During his tenure at China Television Company (中國電視公司), Chang Chao-Tang (張照堂) produced a special feature for the news program “Sixty Minutes” (《六十分鐘》), documenting sites including the Chen Residence in Yongjing, Changhua (彰化永靖陳厝), the Ye Family Octagonal House in Yanshui, Chiayi (嘉義鹽水葉厝八角樓), the tomb of Zheng Chonghe in Houlong, Miaoli (苗栗後龍鄭崇和墓園), the tomb of Wang Delu in Xingang, Chiayi (嘉義新港王得祿墓園), and the controversial relocation of the Lin An-Tai Historic House in Taipei (台北林安泰古厝). Filmed with Christopher Doyle (杜可風) and featuring interviews with Ma Yi-Kung (馬以工) and Lee Chien-Lang (李乾朗), the program documented the growing tensions between modernization, urban development, and historical preservation in postwar Taiwan.

Archive / Preserving Taiwan’s Historic Sites

NR 1979
Fluiding Stage

Two men diligently unload equipment and materials from a truck, put pipes together, and build a stage for a puppet theater. No matter how few people are in the audience, the show starts and ends as it always has. Convincingly, as if to impress it on our minds, the camera registers from a corner the dust-covered projector and film lying idle in a warehouse, and the presence of the men steadily going about their business. Quietly criss-crossing people and places with the camera onboard, giving way to cars on the farm road, the traveling puppet theater carries with it the ambience of a bygone era in Taiwan.

Fluiding Stage

NR 2004
The Pigeon Game

In Taiwan, pigeon racing is not only a sport but also a national obsession where more than 30,000 Taiwanese pigeon racers devote their lives to chasing a dream of fame amd fortune. It's a sport awash with rumor of race fixing, mafia and even kidnappings. Professional pigeon racer Tsai Fong Chi has what it takes to make it big in the next pigeon games. His family is depending on him and much is at stake. With little success since his last big winning streak, his cash reserves have dwindled and he needs to win and win big. Can Tsai's favorite pigeon make it to the final races and bring home the grand prize?

The Pigeon Game

NR 2005
The Beauty of Rituals

"The Beauty of Rituals" (《祭典之美》) by Chang Chao-tang (張照堂) surveys Taiwanese folk festivals across regions and seasons, framing them through the perspectives of archaeologist Chen Chi-lu (陳奇祿), choreographer Lin Hwai-min (林懷民), psychologist Yu Te-hui (余德慧), and painter Shiy De-jinn (席德進). The script and voiceover by Chiang Hsun (蔣勳) articulate the symbolic and affective dimensions of traditional belief.With music by Ma Shui-long (馬水龍), Chou Wen-chung (周文中), Kitaro (喜多郎), and Mike Oldfield, the film juxtaposes Eastern and Western sonic forms, re-mediating ritual as a dynamic contemporary cultural field.

The Beauty of Rituals

NR 1981
Crossing's End

On a winter night in 2002, a couple in their early 20s is breaking up atop a bridge, when the woman falls down. Is it a suicide or accidental death? The man asks a friend to call an ambulance, but the woman dies. The man and his friend are imprisoned for murder when an eyewitness reverses her original statement and says that she saw the two men throwing the woman from the bridge. After more than a decade, director Shih Yu-Lun collaborates with the ‘Taiwan Innocence Project’, a private organization that helps innocent people who have been unjustly convicted, to re-investigate the case.

Crossing's End

NR 2021
Journey into the Mine

“Journey into the Mine” (礦之旅) is a 1981 documentary directed by Chang Chao-Tang (張照堂). Part of the “Journey Through Images” series (映象之旅), it documents the Ruìsān Coal Mine (瑞三煤礦) in Houtong, Ruifang (瑞芳侯硐). Using a portable ENG camera, the crew descended 600 meters underground to record miners working amid heat, coal dust, and gas hazards. Rejecting elite-centered television perspectives, the film foregrounds the resilience of working-class laborers. Its essayistic voice-over is paired with ECM jazz and blues, creating a distinctive tone. In 1982, it won the Golden Bell Award (金鐘獎) for Best Educational and Cultural Program. A rebroadcast added footage of the Neihu Futian Coal Mine disaster (內湖福田煤礦災變), producing a stark dialogue between policy narrative and industrial tragedy. Its footage was later used in Hou Hsiao-hsien’s 1986 film Dust in the Wind”(戀戀風塵).

Journey into the Mine

NR 1981
Let it be

Times were hard in Taiwan after 1949. Thousands of refugees fled to this mountainous island escaping the communist army. Still, Taiwan became a fully self-sufficient country in, for example, rice production. This documentary follows the daily life of old farmers, whose lifestyle and rhythm has not been affected by any of the turbulent changes in the Taiwanese society. tradition, hard work – an almost lost world, which has been keeping the entire society alive for almost 60 years.

Let it be

NR 2004
Taiwan Alishan Forest Railway Journey

The documentary "Taiwan Alishan Forest Railway Journey" offers a diverse array of content, with every detail highlighting the distinct features of Alishan in Taiwan. It includes many impressive elements. In addition to employing the latest filming techniques, the team captured stunning landscapes and remarkable railway construction methods, such as the figure-eight design, Z-segments, horseshoe bends, and the restoration of a century-old steam locomotive. They even filmed the domestically produced cypress train, named Formosensis, which has yet to enter service. Both Japan’s NHK and Taiwan’s Public Television Service provided their award-winning teams and enlisted the participation of renowned Japanese composer Kiyoshi Yoshida and Golden Horse Award-winning actress Gwei Lun-mei for the Chinese narration, enhancing the documentary’s international appeal.

Taiwan Alishan Forest Railway Journey

NR 2024
Condemned Practice Mode

HSU Tzu-chiang was pronounced guilty and sentenced to death in a 1995 kidnap and murder case despite the lack of forensic evidence. After a 16-year effort by NGOs, HSU was released with a life sentence in 2016. Now he continues to fight to prove his innocence. Director Chi has been documenting Hsu's story since 2012. The journey brought Chi face-to-face with the shortcomings of human society and inspired his investigation into why the judicial system failed HSU.

Condemned Practice Mode

6.0 2017
The Islands

This documentary film follows the journey of former student activist and current political staffer Chen Ting-hao after his decision to escape the cynical politicism of Taipei City to the political backwater of Matsu, an island group administered by Taiwan less than a dozen kilometers off the coast of China. The narrative follows Ting-hao as he reflects on how his political idealism fits in with everyday political reality and ponders Taiwan’s complex political landscape, Taiwan’s relations with a meddlesome yet surprisingly indifferent China, and the perspectives of Matsu residents on Taiwan-China affairs.

The Islands

NR 2022
Taivalu

Tuvalu, This defenseless nation of 26 square kilometers will be the first island nation to be submerged by the oceans once the sea level rises due to global warming. The director Huang Hsin-yao left his hometown after the 88 flooding disaster in Taiwan in search of this disappearing island called Tuvalu. While aboard this swaying ship in the Pacific, various fantastic spectacles of Taiwan emerge in the mind of the director… Once out at sea barbecuing, he found under the sea…

Taivalu

6.5 2010
In Memory of The Chinatown

May a building have its own reincarnation? Once upon a time, there's a region of canal's dockyard in the center of Tainan city in Taiwan. Later in 1970s, the canal gradually lost its function and the large residential and commercial mixed mall "China Town" had been built at the site. China Town was once the most prosperous mall in the city, however, by more than three decades of rise and fall, the city's authority planned to demolish the building for urban renewal plan. The China Town makes no exception of those failing shopping malls all around this island. As for those residents who have lived in the China Town for a long time experience most of the death and life of the city.

In Memory of The Chinatown

NR 2015
Experimental Taiwanese

Hebei origin, air-force officer retiree, Mr. Chou, now diligently learning Taiwanese, met “Chang Jiang No. 1,” China’s top secret agent during Sino-Japanese war, on a Peking opera’ seminar. Chou’s flat moon life has then been sparkled. He started to talk around about the heroic accomplishments this “Chang Jiang No.1” had done. This person, “who contributes most to China,” gradually becomes Chou’s only mark on the Moon. Is “homesickness” a gene? Inheritable? Transplantable? Can be parted or chosen? Contagious? Needs regular purging like computer viruses? … Through the story between Mr. Chou and “Chang Jiang No.1.” the film uses lively rhythm to represent the interesting homesickness issue. The director adopts a humorous way to re-present these new Taiwanese in Taiwan. As for whether “Chang Jiang No.1” is a real person or not is up to the audience to decide.

Experimental Taiwanese

NR 2003
Work hard, die hard

Four college students wanted to shoot Hollywood videos and finally persuaded the driver of the shuttle bus, Little Wolf Dog, to participate in the show. In order to seize the time to rehearse with the busy driver, they crowded in the car and staggered around to rehearse with the little wolf dog when they went out to rehearse. Unexpectedly, an accident occurred during the filming, which made them reflect on the overworked work style of large truck drivers, the salary system of basic salary plus bonus, and driving on dangerous roads day after day... Real life is indeed more real than movies. It seems that he is at a critical moment at any time.

Work hard, die hard

NR 2020
Sentimental Journey

This is a 3-part love story. One girl is talking a story of her ex-boyfriend. He went aboard to chase for homosexual love. Although she stayed home, both of them are experiencing almost simultaneously unbounded sexual exploring journey in each end. The traditional narrative monologue is manipulated as a link to all the experimental segments. As the story goes on, the emotion of those original extremely abstract experimental footages are becoming touchable and understandable.

Sentimental Journey

NR 2003
Legacy

This landmark dance film presents Legacy, a defining work by Lin Hwai-min and Cloud Gate Dance Theatre of Taiwan, directed for screen by Chang Chao-Tang. Premiered in 1978, the work marked one of the first major theatrical productions centered on Taiwan’s own history, leaving a powerful and immediate impact. Built on a strong sense of ritual, Legacy evokes collective memory and identity, reflecting Cloud Gate’s commitment to engaging with society and history through dance. This documentary captures a 2003 performance for the company’s 30th anniversary. With live percussion by JUT Percussion Group and the voice of Chen Da, the dancers push their physical limits in an intense and deeply emotional staging.

Legacy

NR 2003
Recipe for C

Recipe for C is a collaborative creation by visual artist Jie-Huai Yang and graphic designer Changwei, inspired by their shared experiences with a mutual ex-boyfriend, C. As a restaurant chef, C centered his life around experimental cooking, with his notes and recipes serving as the foundation for this project. Though a recipe book and a cooking tutorial video, the work transforms intimate emotional memories into a public sensory and visual dialogue. Cooking becomes not only a retrospective of a past relationships and sexual roles. By kneading and blending ingredients, the work reinterprets fragile yet profound memories, showcasing the vulnerability and resilience of emotions. Recipe for C unveils private stories hidden in the shadows, like a dish releasing its lingering aroma, challenging viewers' perceptions of emotions and gender roles.

Recipe for C

NR 2025
Seven Ages of A Man

For 45 years, Jen-Shiu Hsu has used photography and writing to explore the intricate universe of nature. He has tirelessly shared his discoveries with the world, exposing both its beauty and the destruction caused by human civilization. But in 2019, after undergoing surgery for the first time in his life, he became acutely aware of time. Suddenly, his lifelong rhythm of exploration faced an unavoidable limit. His final, unfinished expedition—will it be the closing chapter of his journey, or the start of something new? This documentary observes a man who has always sought the core of nature, now faced with the reality of his own mortality. As he embarks on one last great adventure, the film also captures how the filmmaking team, through their own journeys, begins to question their relationship with nature and their understanding of life itself.

Seven Ages of A Man

NR 2025