Why the First Gay Movie Festival in Taiwan matters
“If we took a holiday,
just some time to celebrate,
just one day at life,
it will be… it will be so nice…”
While singing this song long time ago I would never imagine that for my 30th birthday I would be living in Taiwan writing about the first edition of what —I am sure— will become one of the most important Gay Festivals in this country. Even writing openly about this matter seemed to be impossible back at those days… But now things have changed and its an honor to support this and any other related cause.
No, is not the biggest pride-parade in Asia which takes over the streets every year attracting up to 60 thousand people by the end of October, making Taiwan one of the most –maybe the most— gay-friendly nation in this continent.
Today’s post is about the First Taiwan International Queer Film Festival, an event which contents, participants, and movies will open even more the acceptance of the gay community in this beautiful Island.
Let’s start with the basic information: The TIQFF will be held in two big cities this year: Taipei and Kaohsiung, from Sept 26 to 30, and Oct 3 to 7, respectively. Both cities will present 60 movies from 30 countries, including long and short films, documental and some film-related workshops.
In order to promote the gay-related film production in Taiwan, there will be one unique prize for those lucky filmmakers that could subscribe for the 2014 edition; but do not worry, if you want to participate, you can always finish your project and enrol for the next one.
But why is this Festival so important? You might be asking yourself.
Recent topics such as the homophobic movements in Russia and the development for an anti-HIV drug are part of the topics included for this year. So if you have any interest about the gay environments not only in Taiwan but all over the world, you need to be informed. Right?
I had the chance to read the information brochure—which links are available at the bottom of this article, including schedules and more— and then I realized about the big names included in the guest and expositors’ list. Some of them are old school directors that produced emblematic movies that changed the mentality of several generations about homosexuality but there are also new talents that have been doing the same for the youngest audiences recently.
Through an interview online, Victor Stevenson, spokesman of Portico Media –directed by Jay Lin, the organizer of this event—, replied to some questions about this Festival which answers were the last reason I needed to publish this colourful post.
Apparently, the idea was conceived more than three years ago, but the pieces to actually make it happen fell into place just last February when Jay Lin was visiting Honk Kong for the Hong Kong International Film & TV Market (HKTDC).
“His intentions were to present gay-related Taiwanese productions, but being there, made him realized that every other country was pursuing the same to promote their own cultures. After taking a look to all the options showed at the HKTDC, the idea of creating the Queer Festival in Taiwan popped up in his head by mixing foreigner and local talents inside a ‘Made in Taiwan’-kind of concept”.
Once he came back —Victor goes on— the whole Portico Media team started to do some research about the previous editions for every LGBT Film Festivals all over the world they could find about.
“Frameline -in San Francisco-, Outfest -Los Angeles-, Torino -Italy-… you name it. We look for each and every movie presented within the last two years and started to track their distributors and producers. We contacted them and talk to them about the First Queer Festival in Taiwan”.
In order to reduce the final selection for the first Festival in Taiwan, Jay and his team sat down and watch every single movie they could find. The first filter was to show those productions that had never been showed in Taiwan; the second was to show gay productions made in Asia, but “sadly, there are not that many”.
Based on that, Portico Media organized a LGBT short film contest in Chinese, receiving more than 100 works. A final-5-round was selected, and this movies are still competing for the unique award of this year.
“It has been really hard to select the final 5 competitors. Regardless of the nationalities, we considered production quality, story originality, story background, acting and directing.”
The co-directors of this Festival, special guests and other important celebrities will give the last word for the first place at the end of the TIQFF.
Ok, now how we simple mortals can help this cause? Victor said that spreading the word should be enough.
“Besides of coming to see the movies, you can share the Facebook links, and subscribe to our YouTube Channel. Indirectly we can also give our support to the LGBT community by participating in different events or giving our opinion about important matters such as the legalization for the gay marriage in the Island, for example. The movies we included in the Festival celebrate the achievements of the gay community, but also rise awareness about those topics affecting it every day”.
Finally, Portico Media invited all those directors, writers and producers to get together and submit works for the future editions.
“The convocation never ends. Some of the directors and producers participating this year are already submitting their new works”, said Victor.
:::
Now is your turn. Spread the word and celebrate the cultural revolution that moves the LGBT community all over the world through different Film Festivals in which Taiwan now is included.
Here is some extra information about prices and screenings.
Enjoy the TIQFF!
The movies
Campaign of Hate: Russia and Gay Propaganda
Links
https://www.facebook.com/tiqff
https://www.facebook.com/porticomediatw
:::::::::::::::::::::::
Emmanuel is a freelancer journalist who writes about his experiences in Taiwan in both English and Spanish. He also collaborates with Blink Ent., by writing short film’s scripts and TV Sketches and develops other personal writing projects. You can find more about his work in the following links.
https://www.facebook.com/EmmanuelBlinkEnt
