After July’s 2015 Tai­pei Film Festival, the Tai­pei Documentary Film Festival starts in September, to be followed by the Women Make Waves Film Festival in October and the Tai­pei Golden Horse Film Festival in November. The cinematic atmosphere over the next few months seems certain to remain, well, festive.  

Film festivals are a particularly vital cultural activity in Taiwan: Virtually any month one can find film festivals small and large being held. The phenomenon demonstrates that Taiwan’s film-going population is growing larger and its tastes more varied.

After Hou ­Hsiao-­hsien’s success at international film festivals with A City of Sadness in 1989, film festivals in Taiwan took off in the 1990s. First there was the Golden Horse Film Festival, which was oriented toward commercial films. Then came the Tai­pei Film Festival and Taiwan International Documentary Festival in 1998, followed by all manner of festivals with particular themes, such a festival devoted to environmental films, another to children’s films, and still another to highlighting the issues of domestic violence and sexual abuse. There are also promotional activities dressed up as film festivals to support commercial films. By all accounts, the last 20-some years have been an extremely exciting period in Taiwan’s history of film festivals, which have played an important role in fostering urban culture.

Sparking curiosity about the world

Angelika Wang, who started planning the Golden Horse Film Festival in 1991 and has also helped organize many thematic festivals, says, “Every film festival has its own soul.” She cites the Taiwan International Children’s Film Festival, which is where many children first experience a film festival. In addition to watching a movie, children there can get behind-the-scenes glimpses of the art of filmmaking and attain a greater understanding about other countries. The experience also plants an imaginative seed in children about the world of film.

“Putting on a festival is the easy part,” Wang says. “Figuring out what you want that festival to say is what’s important.” She describes a film festival as a medium for prompting discussion and drawing attention to issues. And in the eyes of Hou ­Hsiao-­hsien, the interaction and communication that festivals spark is where they are most meaningful.

Films are an engine of cultural development. Although Taiwan has flourishing film festivals, domestically produced films have had their ups and downs. Hou believes that if Taiwan’s films are to ascend to a higher level in the future, it requires more than quality filmmakers: Cultivating audiences is also an important part of the solution. “Just as schools push physical education, they should be pushing basic cultural education in elementary and junior high schools, promoting the reading of literature and music.” He cites the example of Europe: French kids from a young age are required in school to do outside reading, and they are expected to watch art films every week. “When these children grow up, they will possess a different cultural fiber.”

Festivals count as one part of film culture. They need to be cultivated steadily. Only if these festivals possess rich and varied content can they attract a variety of audiences. “In particular, they’ve got to attract more people of a non-artsy bent,” says Wang. “Only by so doing can they attain broader social impact. Films comprise a market, whereas festivals represent a form of cultivation.”

Greater than the sum of their parts

Take, for instance, the Purple Ribbon Film Festival, a thematic film festival sponsored by the New Tai­pei City Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault Prevention Center. In addition to inviting people to watch films, it provides opportunities for audience members to hear experts after screenings and discuss related issues with them. The idea is to leverage films to advance the prevention of domestic violence and sexual assault. “This sort of curation is quite moving,” Wang says, “and it’s altogether different from planning a mainstream festival oriented toward hipsters.”

“Film festivals consist partly of the films themselves and partly of the issues surrounding them, and they represent something greater than the sum of their parts,” says Wang. “When you combine these elements, they become that much more powerful.” When you bring films together with other related activities and exhibitions, Wang says, you can create new ways of having fun, so that films become even more enjoyable.

Early on, most film festivals in Taiwan were held in major cities. Now smaller municipalities and counties are beginning to foster the needed atmosphere and facilities. Take, for instance, FZ 15 in Ban­qiao. Similar screening spaces are beginning to be found in quite a few places around the island. The small city of Dou­liu in Yun­lin County has hosted a film festival on migrant workers, and the rural district of Qiao­tou in Kao­hsiung has been holding the Golden Sugarcane Film Festival every year since 2006. It features films produced, shot and edited locally.

Fertile creativity

Much to the benefit of audiences, film festivals’ themes are growing ever more varied. The hope is that this diversity will stimulate Taiwan’s filmmakers to create a richer variety of films, which will in turn raise box-office receipts and generally bolster the industry.

A diverse film market is a social phenomenon. “A film market ought to have a wide variety of film genres,” says Wang. “Only with proper division of labor, so that there are capable professionals in every job in the industry, can the film environment be considered truly robust. Creative vitality needs to be widely spread throughout the industry, or new directors will be too constricted in what they can do.”

Hou ­Hsiao-­hsien often sings the praises of Taiwan to local and foreign filmmakers. He describes it as a great place to shoot films, with abundant resources and a wide variety of shooting locations. It is thus well suited to becoming an important filmmaking center, he argues. ­Hwarng Wern-ying, a producer and the costume and production designer of Hou’s The Assassin, says: “Taiwan is already up to snuff in term of skills and resources. When Silence was filmed here, its crew used all Taiwanese equipment. Now if only studio services could be raised to a higher level, that would help foster a greater willingness among international teams to shoot in Taiwan.” 

The ROC government has been sparing no effort to support filmmaking in Taiwan, and the subsidies it provides are the envy of filmmakers in many countries. In addition to government-sponsored festivals, many local thematic film festivals can also apply for grants. Those subsidies and grants have been of tremendous help in fostering the island’s flourishing film festival culture. Let’s hope that this phenomenon can also give rise to a greater variety of Taiwan-made films and cultivate audiences here with broader tastes, so that films remain a way of fostering cultural conversations within Taiwanese society and the international community.

The multifaceted Taipei Documentary Film Festival expands people’s understanding of international trends, art, culture and the human condition. Facing page: The Internet’s Own Boy: The Story of Aaron Swartz. (courtesy of TDFF)

Film festivals both shape culture and are shaped by it. This Photo: Son of Saul, one of the Golden Horse Film Festival’s big screenings this year, is the first feature-length film made by the cutting-edge director László Nemes. It won a FIPRESCI Prize and the Grand Prix at Cannes. (courtesy of GHFF)

Film festivals both shape culture and are shaped by it. This Photo: Mountains May Depart will be shown at the Golden Horse Film Festival this year. Its director Jia Zhangke has so far sent four of his films to Cannes.

Film festivals both shape culture and are shaped by it. This Photo: Advantageous will kick off the Women Make Waves Film Festival.

The 2015 Taipei Documentary Film Festival focused on “a sense of security and a sense of mission.” With the theme “Restless Mind of Turbulent Years,” the organizers selected 38 films that highlight the change and uncertainty faced by people in contemporary society. (courtesy of TDFF)

The Women Make Waves Film Festival has chosen the spirit of risk-taking among women as its theme for this year. It will feature the avantgarde spirit of contemporary women who refuse to be confined by their ages or by social norms as they look to find their true selves. (courtesy of WMWFF)

During summer vacation this year, the Taipei Film Festival screened Starry Starry Night in the Huashan 1914 Creative Park. Nearly 2000 people watched it outside together. (courtesy of TFF)