Taiwan films at the San Francisco International Film Festival

This month, Sylvia Feng, the president and CEO of the Public Television Service (PTS) of Taiwan, will be one of the judges for the New Directors Prize at the 53rd San Francisco International Film Festival (SFIFF). Beside Feng’s participation as a judge, this year’s festival will also feature three films with Taiwan roots.

Feng is well-known in Taiwan’s filmmaking community. She was instrumental in rallying support to pass the Public Television Act in 1997, which set aside government money to promote public broadcasting. In 1999, Feng created Viewpoint, the first and only documentary program in Taiwan. The program has been a pivotal force in the promotion and nurturing of documentary filmmaking on the island. To read more about the films she will be judging or to find out more about the festival, please visit the festival’s website at: http://fest10.sffs.org/.

Yellow Sheep River

One of Taiwan’s entries at the SFIFF is Yellow Sheep River. A beautiful documentary by director Liu Soung. Set in far Western China, the film explores life in a traditional Chinese agricultural society through following the routine of everyday life and the changing seasons. The sameness and the cycles of living are all seen against the backdrop of starkly beautiful and vivid scenes. Audiences will come away wishing for the bucolic beauty and meditative tranquility offered in Yellow Sheep River. To find out more about show times, please visit: http://fest10.sffs.org/films/film_details.php?id=105.The director will be present for Q&A during the festival.

Empire of Silver

Also showing at the festival is Empire of Silver, a collaborative film drawing on talent from Taiwan, Hong Kong and China. Made by Palo Alto-based filmmaker Christina Yao, the movie is an epic love story-family drama centering on a powerful banking family during the waning years of the Qing Dynasty in the late 19th century. To find out more about show times, please visit: http://fest10.sffs.org/films/film_details.php?id=22.

Sleeping with Her

Taiwan director Wen Chih-yi also has a short film in this year’s Golden Gate Awards competition for documentary shorts. Wen’s film focuses on an infirm Taiwanese woman who is lovingly cared for by an Indonesian woman. The short focuses on her caregiver’s stoic endurance of her lonely life and the verbal onslaught from her employer.

This year’s films will be showing from April 23 to May 6 in four locations in San Francisco and Berkeley.