Taiwan in the 1960s was a nation marked by a repressive political climate, a heavily restricted flow of information, and a mainstream film culture that was dominated by Taiyupian (Taiwanese-language cinema) and what came to be known as “healthy realist” melodramas. Nevertheless, young Taiwanese intellectuals, who had become aware of the Western avant-garde movement through writings and translations, were eager to align themselves with the innovations of their counterparts in the West. They formed for themselves a concept of what the “avant-garde” could look like and carried out their own experiments with film and theater.

 

This year’s edition of the Taiwan International Documentary Festival featured a special series showcasing films from the 1960s by some of the most daring and creative artists in Taiwan. A large number of these experimental works have not been preserved, yet traces have been found and periodically studied, and gradually the 1960s has come to be known as an era of vanguard cultural activity in Taiwan. The TIDF curatorial team conducted an exhaustive search for all the films of that period. They reached out to the surviving artists (now all in their seventies or eighties), interviewed those in Hong Kong and Western art circuits who worked or were in contact with their Taiwanese counterparts, and pored through every issue of the Theatre Quarterly, the magazine that played a pivotal role in advocating the latest developments in the Western art world by dedicating more than 90% of its pages to translations of new European and American works. A rough sketch of the 1960s film experiments gradually took shape. In May, the TIDF presented this special series in Taipei, with some titles screening publicly for the first time since their completion half a century ago.

 

The TIDF team went the extra mile to search for evidence of lost films made in the 1960s, eventually putting together a filmography of 34 titles. These works collectively represent a sudden surge in creative energy and can be seen as a reflection of the unique zeitgeist of the 1960s. Moreover, the formal diversity of these works challenged the definition of the cinema, and also sketched out the rough edges of the generation’s own sense of modern film. These five programs bring the fruits of the TIDF team’s efforts to the United States for the first time!

 

This series has been curated by the Taiwan International Documentary Festival, with support from the Taiwan Film Institute, and is presented in collaboration with the Film Archive (Public Organization)

 

 

PROGRAM A : RICHARD YAO-CHI CHEN’S STUDENT FILMS, 1963-66

 

Born in Sichuan, China, in 1938, Richard Yao-chi Chen moved to Taiwan in 1945 where he studied architecture before relocating to the U.S. He attended the Chicago Art Institute and received his MA in film studies from UCLA in 1967, and then returned to Taiwan to embark on a successful filmmaking career in the Chinese-speaking world. This program features four films Chen made while studying at UCLA. THE ARCHER is a hand-drawn animation of the Chinese folktale “Houyi Shoots Down the Suns.” THROUGH THE YEARS touches on the theme of Westward expansion by combining facts with fiction. A film about three college students, THE MOUNTAIN employs a modernist narrative to reflect young people’s longing for freedom in the 1960s. The original copy of this short lay forgotten in a UCLA professor’s garage for decades and was digitally restored by the Taiwan Film Institute in 2017. LIU PI-CHIA, a biographical documentary depicting the life of a veteran who joined tens of thousands of others to work on national infrastructure construction projects in the 1960s, is considered Taiwan’s first cinéma vérité film.

 

The Archer (Digital Restoration)

1963｜5min｜Richard Yao-chi CHEN

This is a student exercise made when the director was studying for his MA at UCLA; all aspects including story, script, and character design were independently conceived. It features classic oriental imagery and a Western child narrating the Chinese legend ‘Houyi Shoots Down the Suns’ in English.

 

Through the Years (Digital Restoration)

1964｜11min｜Richard Yao-chi CHEN

It is said that when America began its westward territorial expansion, every mile of train track laid down cost the life of a Chinese migrant worker. Mixing fiction with documentary, the film shows trains racing past ramshackle forts and barren deserts as a waltz plays on, with the desolate scenery contrasting with the tourists’ smiling faces.

 

The Mountain (Digital Restoration)

1966｜19min｜Richard Yao-chi CHEN

The director follows three art college students HUANG Yong-song, MOU Tun-fei, and HUANG Gui-rong as they enjoy an excursion into the mountains. As the song ‘California Dreamin’ plays, the three talk about their artistic ideals, how only KMT party members were eligible for scholarships, and their view on the Vietnam War.

 

Liu Pi-chia (Digital Restoration)

1967｜27min｜Richard Yao-chi CHEN

Featuring a middle-aged veteran living in Hualien County, the film is a realistic and powerful portrayal of his simple daily life. It is a film about ordinary people at an unordinary historical moment. The power of the film resides in its attempt to represent the subjects the way they are and to leave the task of interpretation to the viewers.

 

PROGRAM B: EXPERIMENTAL SHORTS FROM THE 1960s

 

This program presents films by six key figures, including filmmaker Pai Ching-jui (1931-97) and Chiu Kang-chien (1940 – 2013),  painter Han Hsiang-ning (born 1939), photographer Chuang Ling and Chang Chao-tang, and designer Long Sih-liang (1937-2012). While the movement was short-lived these filmmakers went on to become well-established artists in their own disciplines. Pai, the first person from Taiwan to study film in Italy, built his reputation making classic melodramas and literary adaptations. Chiu Kang-chien was a renowned screenwriter in Chinese-language cinema. Han, still active today, is a noted painter, while Chuang and Chang are two highly respected photographers in Taiwan, and Long created many memorable visual designs for films and books.

 

 

A Morning in Taipei

1964｜20min｜PAI Ching-jui

This is an early work by the director, who had just returned from Italy. As dawn gradually breaks, we see the neon lights of the city being swallowed by the morning light. The lens traverses through parks, churches, markets, factories, and finally follows the morning paper into the breakfast hours of a small white-collar family.

 

Today

1965｜4min｜HAN Hsiang-ning

On the sandy shore at Yehliu, a headless human figure is beached and beaten by the waves. As the figure rolls along the sand, it takes on a variety of sculpture-like poses in the endless space where sea and sky seem to join as one. The human-like figure flickers in and out of view between the waves, until her arms stretch out from the vast emptiness and are cleansed.

 

Run

1966｜5min｜HAN Hsiang-ning

On a morning in 1966, as requested by the director, artist XI De-jin ran around the Renai Road Roundabout, while an 8mm camera tagged along. The runner, wearing a striped outfit, keeps striding forward to some unknown finish line, his eyes looking around from time to time; suddenly, a crowd of motorcycles appears and engulfs him.

 

Modern Poetry Exhibition/1966

1966｜12min｜CHANG Chao-tang

Artists contributing to the 1966 Modern Poetry Exhibition included HUANG Hua-cheng, LONG Sih-liang, HUANG Yong-song, and CHANG Chao-tang; each artist chose their favorite modern poems and transformed them into imagery. This film is a time capsule capturing some of the exhibits, as well as the young artists.

 

Alienation

1966｜7min｜CHIU Kang-chien

Caterpillar crawling on the wall, a seemingly masturbating naked man, a weird car accident, poetic captions, ending with 11 stills of people posing like crucifixion. Rumour has it that a priest in Cardinal Tien Cultural Center concerned about the image of masturbation and canceled the participation of this film in the 1966 “Theatre Quarterly’s” film exhibition. The stills, script and notes, however, were published in the fifth edition of Theatre Quarterly and thus became a legend. This is the first time that the film will be screened after it has been considered lost for 52 years.

 

 

Life Continued

1966｜14min｜CHUANG Ling

A pregnant woman awakes at the start of a day. The camera invites the viewers along with a placid, light-feeling view, as she goes about her day, taking into view unhurried pedestrians, tricycles, a traditional market place, and a plain city still unencumbered by high rise buildings.

 

My New Born Baby

1967｜8min｜CHUANG Ling

This calm, family-centered film documents the first 18 months of the life of the director’s eldest daughter. The film follows the young baby’s faltering footsteps, as she takes account of the wide world through her tiny body, and preserves the cherished moments of the family.

 

Getting Ready for the Festival

1967｜5min｜LONG Sih-liang

In these freckled, disjointed montages of everyday life, we see a faint hint of an upcoming festival as the theatre troupe sound its drums; the children either sit and gaze, or clamber to see the lead actress. This 8mm roll of film was found after LONG Sih-liang passed away in 2012 and is now shown for the first time in 51 years.

 

PROGRAM D: EXPERIMENTAL SHORTS FROM THE 1960s

 

This program includes five films by artists who were indirectly involved in the 1960s artistic experiments. 

 

The Milky Way

1968｜2min｜Xi Xi

Renowned writer Xi Xi served as editor for the ninth issue of Theater Quarterly. Having an elder brother who worked at a television news station, she had access to a large amount of discarded tape. Piecing these images and sounds of celebrities and even the Pope together, this collage work serves as a reworked document of the era.

 

Routine

1969｜10min｜LAW Kar

This film documents a short trip from Star Ferry’s taxi stand to the office of Chinese Student Weekly in Kowloon Tong. It shows the street scenes of Hong Kong in 1968 and the state of mind of a Hong Kong young man after the 1967 Riot.

 

T"ai Chi Ch"uan

1969｜10min｜Tom DAVENPORT

During the 1960s, Tom DAVENPORT was commissioned by National Geographic to film in Taiwan. This was his first documentary, in which he captured philosopher NAN Huai-chin practicing Tai-chi at Taiwan’s northeastern coast. Shot with a 16mm camera, the film features sound created by composer Tom JOHNSON.

 

Experiment 002 (Extracted from Video Documentation of the Symposium of "Theatre Quarterly")

1994｜39min｜HUANG Hua-cheng

In 1994 HUANG Hua-cheng showed his 8mm film Experiment 002 during a seminar titled ‘Theater Quarterly and Me’ at the Chinese Taipei Film Archive. This film is a recording of the seminar, documenting how the film was played and the seminar proceedings. HUANG passed away in 1996, and his earlier films have been lost.

 

The Prophet

2016｜25min｜SU Yu-hsien

Originally written by HUANG Hua-cheng, the script centres on the dialogue between a couple sitting in the audience of a play. When this piece was first shown in 1965, director Richard Yao-chi CHEN reworked it with the actors on stage. 51 years later, actors CHUANG Ling and LIU Ying-shang are invited back to the theatre to recreate the groundbreaking original.

 

Plaster Gong

2017｜47min｜SU Yu-hsien

Theater Quarterly leaped on stage in 1965 with a literal bang by breaking a fragile plaster gong and the performance of two absurdist theatre pieces, The Prophet and Waiting for Godot. This film interviews those involved in the performance and recreates the plaster gong while weaving in archival footage.

 

MOU TUN-FEI

Born in China in 1941, Mou Tun-fei moved to Taiwan in 1949. He declared that cinema would be his lifework while he was still an art school student. I DIDN’T DARE TO TELL YOU and THE END OF THE TRACK, both included in this series, are the only two feature-length films he made in Taiwan and are among the nation’s first independent titles. Both films went unreleased, for unknown reasons, though rumor has it that the realistic depiction of a stifling society in I DIDN’T DARE TO TELL YOU and the hint of homosexuality in THE END OF THE TRACK could be to blame. Discouraged, Mou spent the following years traveling in Europe and South America before working in Hong Kong for Shaw Brothers Pictures, where he became known for making gory genre films.

 

PROGRAM C : I DIDN’T DARE TO TELL YOU

1969｜78min｜MOU Tun-fei 

A student secretly works a night job to pay off his father’s gambling debts, and as a result constantly dozes off during classes in the day. When the teacher investigates, a series of family disputes ensues. This is MOU’s first film after graduating from Taiwan Art College. When it was first shown, it drew much criticism and debate.

PROGRAM  E: THE END OF THE TRACK

1970｜91min｜MOU Tun-fei 

Tong and Yong-sheng are inseparable playmates, but after Yong-sheng dies in an accident, Tong falls into a dark spiral. At the time, this film was banned due to its homosexual overtones and ideology, while some felt that certain segments drew comparison with CHEN Ying-zhen’s short story The Noodle Stall.

 

Saturday 27 April 2019

13.00 น. Program A: RICHARD YAO-CHI CHEN’S STUDENT FILMS, 1963-66 (62 MIN)

    - The Archer (1963 / 5 MIN) 

    - Through the Years  (1964 / 11 MIN) 

    - The Mountain (1966 / 19 MIN)

     - Liu Pi-Chia (1967 / 27 MIN) 

14.30 น. Program B:  EXPERIMENTAL SHORTS FROM THE 1960s # 1 (75 MIN)

     - A Morning in Taipei (1964 / 20 MIN) 

      - Today (1965 / 4 MIN) 

      - Run  (1966 / 5 MIN)

      - Modern Poetry Exhibition (1966 / 12 MIN) 

      - Alienation (1966 / 7 min)

      - Life Continued (1966/ 14 MIN)

      - My New Born Baby (1967 / 8 MIN) 

      - Getting Ready for the Festival (1967 / 5 MIN)

16.00 น.  The Mountain (1966 / 19 MIN)

   Program C:  I Didn’t Dare to Tell You (1969 / 78 MIN)

 

Sunday 28 April 2019

13.00 น. Program D: EXPERIMENTAL SHORTS FROM THE 1960s # 2 (133 MIN)

  - The Milky Way  (1968 / 2 MIN)

  - Routine   (1969 / 10 MIN)

             - T’ai Chi Ch’uan (1969 / 10 MIN)

              - Experiment 002 (1994 / 39 MIN)

              - The Prophet (2016 / 25 MIN)

    - Plaster Gong (2017 /47 min)

15.30 น. Program E:  The End of the Track (1970 / 91 MIN)