Folk Gaze: A Chinese-language Film Weekend

by Deana LIU / MSc. Film, Exhibition and Curation.  University of Edinburgh

''This event featuring films selected from the Taiwan Cinema Toolkit was actually the graduating project for my master’s degree. The festival theme and film selections revolved around the concept of “folk” cultures. Our initial concept was to present the reality of the daily lives of Taiwanese and Chinese people (my project partner was a student from China) through contemporary cinema. Under the precondition of deliberately avoiding films with big-city backdrops and the works of master filmmakers, we chose the film 7 Days in Heaven. To add to the richness of the film genres, we also selected the animated short film A Piece of Cake and the live-action short film Old Seafarer. The category search function on the Taiwan Cinema Toolkit website was a tremendous help tocurating the film festival. The film archive itself is also very diverse, plus the Toolkit is free of charge to use, which makes it very useful for students without a budget like us and non-profit organizations promoting Taiwanese films overseas.''