Director │ CHOU Wen-chin
Preserved in Huang-gang Fishing Port in northern Taiwan is a fishing technique rarely seen in the world, called sulfuric fire fishing. It is a unique approach dying out due to being of little economic benefit. After reaching the age of fifty, the HSIEH brothers returned home to inherit the family fishing boat, Yong- Yu-Fa, the oldest and smallest of four remaining boats still utilizing this special technique. The two of them had to learn everything from the beginning, and after running the business for a few years, they began to consider giving it all up because it was far from easy. Trapped between their all too real economic concerns and the sense of having a mission to preserve this traditional fishing method, will they find the inspiration to hang on and find a balance, striking the sparkling light of life?
Director │ LIU Liu
Producer │ LI Xiao-wei
Dongguan in China has always been known as “Men’s Paradise”. In 2014, the local government started a thorough clean up that brought the entire sex industry down to the ground. But did the clean up really make the city clean? Does the fall of the industry have any butterfly effect over other industries? How will those girls make their living afterward? Do men that are in to prostitution give up their psychological addiction because of the clean up? This documentary is going to look in fine detail at how the chain of the industry in this city has changed by listening to the accounts of those involved.
Director │ WANG Sean, Chris CHEN
Producer │ WANG Sean
The only Chinese employee that has worked in the European Union, GAI Lin joins an international election team in the UK to run a campaign for a Conservative Party candidate, senator Delwald, to be reelected to the European Council. But he thinks Delwald’s ideas about anti-immgration are an act of nationalism and refuses to canvass for him. As an immigrant himself, Delwald asks immigrants to distribute flyers against immigrants. GAI and two cameramen are forced to canvass. GAI leaves the birthday party of his employer feeling injustice and anger. He invites immigrants to the campaign headquarters to have a party of his own. On election day, GAI gets fired from the team. Running a sharp tongue and mean words has made him the nationalist he despises.
Director │ SUN Yang
Producer │ Wendy HUANG
The artist MA Liang decides to make a “time machine” when he realises his father, who has accompanied and influenced him his whole life, is losing his memories due to dementia. With puppets made by himself and his Time Machine, MA Liang travels back to the times he and his father have experienced together and expresses his unbreakable bond with his father.
Director │QIAN Siru
It’s the winter of 2014, there are not a lot of people around grandma anymore. Grandma has been exhausted by an ill father and the little brother that are trying to get away from her. The harder grandma tries to love them, the harder they try to escape. Facing the camera, grandma gradually reveals her inner world, her lack of strength, regrets, fears and expectations. Grandma’s already over 80, yet still stands firm against destiny, in silence. Everything seems to be in vain. The only thing she can do is to try numb herself to the pain and just keep on getting by.
Director │ CAI Jie
Producer │ XING Beilie
“Why are we Living Buddhas?” This is a question that the two brothers ask each other many times, even though those around them never doubt them. A master has said they will regain a token from a previous life to prove who they are when they reach the age of 18. But before this point, they still need to find the answer and grow up by themselves. There is always a misty forest to walk through. For them, many questions exist concerning their relationship with each other, the boundary between Buddhist and secular life and, the ongoing change from nature to modern life, not to mention the questions about their mysterious identity and destiny. At 17 years old, in the midst of their adolescence, they returned to their hometown in, Litang County. At this time they reached the first decisions in their lives that differed: Nyima chose to practice Buddhism in a bigger temple, while Dawa chose to follow his heart, studying in a primary school. To be a Buddha or not, this is their question.
Director │ XU Wei-chao
Producer │ LEE Ning
This is a story about a elementary school football team in Shinjang and their football season. Han Chinese coach CHUNG Nan of Shihezi 11th Elementary School will lead an underdog team of Uyghur young footballers with a dim future. To start from Shihezi, they will embark upon a journey that changes their fates on their road to the championship.
Director │ ZHANG Nan
Producer │ ZHANG Yong
Three decades ago, thousands of farmers moved from the desert to the bank of Yellow River, and at the same time most of their local ballads, passed on for generations, were lost. Our protagonist, Ga-song, who has suffered from a stammer since childhood, learned many folk songs to treat his condition. While learning folk songs did not effectively cure his sickness, he eventually became fond of the folk music of his homeland.
For the last 7 years, he has stayed away from his home to make a living as a touring singer. Wandering through hundreds of cities, he has become more and more popular and was even invited to appear before the entire nation on the show, China’s Got Talent. But at a critical moment he decided to quit and return home. When he returned, there was nothing left; seeing that the rural life had vanished entirely, he now has to learn how to deal with his anger at how things have changed.
Director │Sally WU
Producer │Sally WU, S. Leo CHIANG
Why are tens of thousands of young women sent away from home to marry foreigners they barely know? Why are mothers across Asia abandoning their children in the middle of the night? If She Leaves examines the repercussions of international arranged marriages in Asia by following one Vietnamese migrant bride as she contemplates leaving her Taiwanese husband and their two daughters to escape mistreatment and seek a better future.
Director │ Kathy HUANG
Producer │ Debbie LUM
Guangzhou, China, manufacturing capital of the world, has attracted nearly 200,000 African migrants over the past decade. Their presence has led to a new social trend: marriages between African men and Chinese women. A Guangzhou Love Affair traces the love, heartache, and challenges of two Afro-Chinese couples. Through their taboo romances and determination to protect their families at all costs, they are at the forefront of a movement helping to forge a new, more inclusive China. Their stories not only hold a mirror to countries trying to meet the challenges of a multiracial society, but also serve as an inspiration to individuals everywhere fighting for the right to love freely beyond borders and color lines.
Director │ Tracy DONG
A director with a real Cultural Revolution complex, named YEH Jing, attempts to bring nine young actors back to the Cultural Revolution by taking them to a firearms factory in a village in Sichuan without the possibility of having any contact from the outside world – just like an anthropological experiment. These nine actors must wear clothes and listen to music from the period every day. When one of the actors asks for leave, a great struggle ensues. It would appear that these actors have gone through some quite astonishing changes during their time together.
Director, Producer │ Ben KANG
Dance on the Square depicts the changing dance styles in Chinese society from the Cultural Revolution up to this day. It traces the history of square dancing, popular in today’s China, from its origins as a form of loyalty dance during the Cultural Revolution.
The five main characters chosen for filming are as follows:
Mr. CHOU, who rebelled during Cultural Revolution and can still perform a handstand at the age of 70; Mr. LIU, the 73-year-old Chief Justice, who took part in the Sino-Indian War and fighting on the frontline; Mr. XUONG, who finds respite from caring his 105-year-old father through dancing in the square; Ms. YINN, who is now 60 years old but was a leader of the Red Guards back in the day; and Ms. CHEN, who is a 60-year-old professional dancer and received a large amount of unfair treatment during the Revolution.
Despite their diverse identities and experiences, they all went through the Cultural Revolution and are all participants and witnesses of the way that square dancing has developed. In this film, a connection between these characters is established through square dancing, the evolution of which provides a perfect example of the historical changes in China during the past forty years. Taking this angle, we focus on the changes in the mentality of contemporary Chinese people, leading ultimately to the interpretation of what lies at the center of this film: a change in spirit.
Director │ LAU Kek-Huat
Producer │ CHEN Jing-lian
They lived their lives captivated by a Malayan dream. Aiming for a better future for the country, they sacrificed their lives and families. But their stories were left untold, banned and buried for 60 years.
This is as story of an unknown man, an exiled army and the unraveling of an old melody, “Love In Malaya”. The story begins with a man’s portrait, which has been hung for more than 30 years in my old wooden house in Perak, Malaysia. It had long been a taboo for my family ever to mention this man, to ever to bring up his name or his past. It was only a few years ago, that I found out that this man was my grandpa, an MCP (Malaya Communist Party) soldier who had sacrificed his life during the Independence fight in 1949. For years, many young Malaysians like me grew up without the knowledge of true history, shadowed by a fear to find out more. We were mystified and clouded by biased history, subverted by the government, school and media. This film is about my search for my absent grandpa, told from the account of my family’s memories. With secrets hidden in the deep rainforest, waiting to unfold, this is but one of the many stories of beloved yet forgotten family members from this time.
Director │ Elvis LU
Producer │ Kay CHOU
In May 1996, Pastor Ya-hui YANG founded the Tong-Kwang Light House Presbyterian Church, the first church in Taiwan founded to specifically serve homosexual congregations. However, it’s creation also gave rise to violent criticism and attacks from the more traditional communions. Due to the various difficulties experienced in providing these services, Pastor YANG found herself dealing with an insurmountable amount of pressure, resulting in her suicide in May 2008, through inhaling the fumes caused by burning charcoal. In taking her own life she managed to create a place where homosexual Christians could find some respite and begin to rise. Her spirit has passed on, guiding her followers towards the revolution for their basic human rights.
Director, Producer │ Masamojo
Agen is going to have a baby. He is a gay man aged 40, who just got out of prison and has retreated into the mountains with his boyfriend. His desire is to quit the gay night club business, something which has brought him both wealth and danger. But to save money for the baby and their future, he must fight his last battle by opening another club. The film tells us about Agen’s life journey, his loves and fears, and about the gay underground world as he has witnessed it.
Director │ LIN Hao-shen, SHIH Yu-lun
When her oldest daughter Hao-ying was diagnosed with ADHD, HSIAO Hsian-yu came to realize that she too suffers from ADHD, explaining why she had felt so misunderstood over the past 30 years, and had led a life full of difficulty and frustration. She saw the isolation her daughter encountered at school and at home. She saw her denying her true self and taking medication to meet others’ expectations. Though her daughter’s feelings of inferiority and withdrawal echoed her own experiences in such a similar way, by being at Hao-ying’s side as she grew, leading her daughter to find confidence and self-worth, she managed to rediscover the life she had once lost.
Director │ FAN Jian
Producer │ XU Zitao, Leer Cheng
YU Xiu-hua, who has been described as the Emily DICKINSON of China, gained extreme popularity during the spring of 2015 when she became one of the the most renowned poets in China.She also suffers fromcerebral palsy.
She sees herself in this order; woman, farmer, poet. Her lot in life has forced her to suffer through more pain than many other people, but it is this destiny that has also pushed her to make the most of her god given talent. It is through this talent that she finds herself boosted up on to a pedestal and facing the limlight, but at this moment her family, her support, also starts to crumble around her. Can the poet stand up against the reality of life by herself?
