Thursday, May 24, 2007

UN07 - HSINCHU SCREENINGS - MAY 19-30

LINK TO THE UN07 HSINCHU SCREENING SCHEDULE (in Chinese) - or see the bottom of this post





We finally made it into a theater with
Urban Nomad beginning a week-long run at the
Hsinchu Image Museum.

Here's a couple of pics from the kick-off
event including a little down-time, and a Q&A session
for two of our own films, "2days Cosplay"
and "Convenient".

UN runs throughout the week at the Hsinchu
Image Museum located at 63 Jhongjheng Road (just 5 minutes
walking from the Hsinchu train station) from Tuesday- Sunday
with daily screenings at 2PM and & 7PM.

Of special interest is a retrospective of
our Wu Tung-Wang our "director in focus" on
Saturday, May 26, at 2PM.

Wu will present his work such as
short films "And Now Happiness" which appeared at the
Sundance Film Festival, and most recently,
"Hot Throbbing Cock" which was showcased
at this year's New York Underground Film Festival.

The screening will be followed by a filmmaker Q&A with
well-known film critic Li Yo-Hsin who will also be on hand
along with 30 students from his film studies course.

And did we mention that residents of Hsinchu get
free admission to all screenings?

HSINCHU SCHEDULE
5/19 10am ROOFTOP ANTICS
5/19 2pm GAME OF THEIR LIVES
5/19 7pm A STATE OF MIND
5/20 10am THE STORY OF MY LIFE: SHORTS I
5/20 2pm Director in Focus: Lynn Chen and Stupid Weird Modern: Shorts 2
5/20 7pm Local Documents/ Local Memories
5/23 7pm ASIAN UPHEAVAL: Shorts 3
5/24 7pm PROFESSOR ZHANG
5/25 7pm TO LIVE IS BETTER THAN TO DIE
5/26 10am EXPERIMENTAL ROOFTOP
5/26 2pm Director in Focus: Wu Tung-wang
5/26 7pm Chasing, Running, Jumping, Colliding: Shorts programmed by Tony Wu
5/27 7pm WHOLPHIN shorts
5/30 7pm TODO TODO TERROS
5/30 7pm CHIAYI SYMPHONY + NEW SOCIAL MOVEMENTS: Shorts 4 or 5

UN07 - DAY 11 - MAY 6, 2007

We rounded out the fest with a bang at Nanhai art gallery. The highlights were a packed house for Friday nights lineup by programmer Tony Wu. It featured Tung-wang Wu's segment, which gave rise to some semi-serious debate on Taiwanese identity. A second director in focus, Lynn Chen, showed two films on Saturday.


Nanhai Gallery.


Lynn Chen talks about her "Seven Scenes About Love" and "Flight to Yesterday."


The Nanhai crowd.


Tung-wang Wu introduces "Hot Throbbing Cock"...


...and then poses with the art exhibition downstairs.


Dave and Tony Wu.

Ms. Ding from Taiwan Public Television was also there Friday working on a program about Taiwanese identity.


Tung-wang also has a friend at the Liberty Times, which provided this coverage.

Wednesday, May 23, 2007

UN07 - DAY 8 - MAY 3, 2007

What a way to put an end to a week long run at TAV!

The festival was proud to host a q&a with Hsu Ya-Ting
director of the film "Life With Happiness" about the
plight of patients living at Lesheng Leprosy Sanitarium.
As many know, this facility has been slated for
demolition on many occasions, with the latest
deadline extended to June 1st.

Later it was Molmol and "Treasure Hill"
a documentary about an artists
community-squatter village
which was shuttered by city officials
earlier this year. A large crowd of artists, misfits and
anarchists turned out for this viewing: a fitting tribute
to a once glorious, righteous community which hosted UN05.

And then it was on to the big mac, or the film that
spawned a thousand lawsuits and turned a nation
on to healthy eating. Representatives from the Wild At
Heart Environmental Foundation introduced the film and
a young student handed out leaflets about a protest he
was planning against the McDonald's in front of National
Taiwan University on Sunday.

Hey man, everybody got the right to say
what they wanna say, and anyways, we're pretty
psyched cuz he's gonna let us borrow his car to
move our cases of beer to the Nanhai Art Space for
the Friday night showing of ...."Hot Throbbing Cock" at 7PM.

UNO7 screams into its final weekend.


An interview with "McLibel" director Franny Armstrong made the cover of POTS the week of the fest.

Big props to director and activist Hsu Ya-ting.

Molmol and Wu Zhong-wei, king of the Treasure Hill squatters.

As we were running low on t-shirts, we decided to crank up the t-shirt factory.

UN07 - DAY 6 - MAY 1, 2007

The change from outdoors to indoors
was finally accomplished on tuesday
as a large crowd turned out for the chance
to talk to the entire cast of the film "Love Song
in the Memory" by Momo Tseng.

Also, filmmaker and lecturer Lionel
Chok debuted his film "Crossroads"
as well as answered questions about why in the
heck this Singaporean film was done in
Chinese.

His answer "most taxi drivers in Singapore
speak Chinese".

Other directors were in attendance such as Long Yuan-Zhi,
"Night of the Square Boat" (seen in the photo playing
with this cat which also snuck into the theater on
Tuesday night). And there was also bartender Charles,
and filmmaker Wu Tung-Wang of "Hot Throbbing
Cock" who can been seen here guarding our
stash of Heineken.

Wednesday promises to draw a bigger
crowd for our "Asian Upheaval" segment
including a documentary about the Burmese
government's attempt to exterminate minorities
in the north, Martyn See's "Speakers Cornered"
and the humorous film about one man's dream
to go to Russia and study agriculture, "Dr. Zhang".
films festival is finally starting to get its swing o!


Singapore's Lionel Chok introduces his "Crossroads"


Momo Tseng and cast at the world premier of "A Love Song In The Memory"

Tung-wang Wu guards the beer.

UN07 - DAY 5 - APRIL 30

A heavy rain did not stop a total of 8 film directors
from turning out for the Urban Nomad screening on
Monday evening.

An indoor setting kept everyone dry and toasty, and
provided just the right atmosphere for
visiting filmmaker Jacen Tan to introduce his
film "Zo Gong."

Remi Crussiere was also on hand to
discuss his film "Profiling" as was Sharon Liu of
"19" and Debbie Hsu of "Her Memory of the Smell".

Also, it was the Taiwan debut of "Todo Todo Terros"
the very first feature film from experimental Philipine
filmmaker John Torres.

Tuesday promises to be better yet as Singapore
filmmaker and lecturer Lionel Chok introduces
his film "Crossroads" to be followed Lin Jing-Jieh's
"Street Survivor" winner of Best Taiwanese Film at
2006 Golden Horse Digital Film Festival.

Did we mention our special on Heineken and
maybe tonight's mixed drink: rum and coke.

Also, more t-shirts are on their way, in
both small and large sizes.


Daren Caudle talking about his "Taipei Movie One"


Screening John Torres' "Todo Todo Terros"


Director Jacen Tan, in town from Singapore.


Debbie Hsu


French director Remi Crussiere's film "Profiling" was made with all Taiwan actors.

UN07 - DAY 2 - April 27, 2007

After the gala opening at Capone's
Taipei's underground film community
got the chance to come
together at the first outdoor
screening of the year for
Urban Nomad.

Nick Bonner, who produced two
documentaries on North Korea we showed
this year, concluded his
stay with a q&a session which
continued onwards to the bar
and lasted till the wee hours of
the morning.

LA film-director Matt Luem
poses outside Taipei Artist Village,
and yes, our largest
billboard yet.

Here's another look!


Matt Luem with our signage.


Producer Nick Bonner is welcomed to Taipei.


Screenings en plein air.