Taiwan International Documentary Festival (TIDF) chose Taichung as its first stop this year, followed by cities such as Changhua, Pingtung, Hualien, and Taitung. The theme of Re-encounter Reality is adopted for the itinerant exhibition to be staged throughout Taiwan. Tonight (23rd), the opening of the event was held at the Liuchuan Canal Waterfront, hosting “Movie Screening x Documentary Electronic Music Party”, outdoor screening of 7 avant-garde short films and selected scenes from 3 Chinese documentaries of “Taiwan Spectrum - Imagining the Avant-garde: Film Experiments of the 1960s”, as well as live music performance by renowned musician Lim Giong and DJ Point (Chih-yuen Hsu). The event attracted over 1,000 participants.

Taichung City Government Information Bureau Director Huang-sheng Wu, Taiwan Film Institute Director Pin-chuan Chen, Taichung Film Development Foundation CEO Ying-chih Lin, and film festival curator Mu-tsai Lin all attended the screening event to enjoy a romantic weekend of films and electronic music with the public.

Before his performance, Lim Giong shared his creative thoughts about “Live Movies”. According to him, he was born in 1964, and images from the 1960s have endowed him with a powerful sense of nostalgia, and he finds more excitement in seeing figures or memories from the bygone era than discovering the future. For this year's TIDF, DJs are used instead of soundtracks, where electronic music is combined with sounds from the 60s to complete this rather nostalgic and meaningful creation.

According to Information Bureau Director Huang-sheng Wu, it is a pleasure to have Lim Giong present documentaries using such unique electronic music approach. The silent documentary complemented by electronic music has truly mesmerized the audience. He was excited to see the originality involved in staging the performance and hoped that unique creativities can flourish by the waterfront corridor of the Liu River every year. With Taichung being the first stop of this year's TIDF, it is hoped that the theme exhibitions of future biennial itinerant exhibitions will also be held in Taichung, and the Information Bureau is eager to lend their support.

Director Wu mentioned that the Taichung leg of this year's TIDF itinerant exhibition will be held from February 26 to March 3 at the lecture hall of Dadun Cultural Center. Admission is free for everyone, so all citizens are welcome to come to the exhibition to see the world through the eyes and lens of various producers and photographers.

TIDF film festival curator Mu-tsai Lin suggested that the “Live Movie” event received wide acclaim at the main film festival last year, and admission tickets were sold out immediately, making it one of the most coveted exhibitions. For the itinerant exhibition in Taichung, TIDF will take “Live Movie” outdoors by setting up large screens at the waterfront of Liu River, an iconic landmark in Taichung. Seven films from “Taiwan Spectrum - Imagining the Avant-garde: Film Experiments of the 1960s” will be screened, including Today, Run, A Morning in Taipei, My New Born Baby, Life Continued, Modern Poetry Exhibition/1966, and Getting Ready for the Festival. The films are complemented by Lim Giong's avant-garde electronic music to sculpt the insightful ambiance of films in the 1960s. Unlike previous open venues, the original soundtracks were fused with the landscape sound effects of the environment to accentuate the local sentiments of Taichung.

After tonight's opening event “Live Movie” of TIDF, documentary platform Giloo staged the Documentary Electronic Music Party. Inspired by the theme of “An Artist's Body”, selected scenes from the films Self-Portrait with Three Women, Yumen, and DENG Nan-guang 8mm Collection were screened to piece together the body language of people in the documentary. In addition, DJ Point (Chih-yuen Hsu)'s East-West fusion electronic music seamlessly combined images with sound, taking the audience to appreciate the brand new appearance of documentaries.

According to the Information Bureau, the Taichung leg of 2019 TIDF itinerant exhibition will be held from February 26 to March 3 at the lecture hall of Dadun Cultural Center, featuring 6 major exhibits: TIDF Award-winning Films, Retrospective of HARA Kazuo, Filmmaker in Focus: Laila PAKALNINA, Focus Programme: SEA of Sadness, Taiwan Spectrum - Imagining the Avant-garde: Film Experiments of the 1960s, and Special Presentation. Furthermore, domestic and international filmmakers, including Japan's master of contemporary documentaries Hara Kazuo, El Mar la Mar director J.P. SNIADECKI, Small Talk Director Huang Hui-chen, Absent without Leave Director LAU Kek-huat, Goodnight & Goodbye Director Adon Wu, and 2018 TIDF Award Winning Film recipient Chin-yuen Ke were invited to attend the post-screening forum.

In addition, the “Let's Chat About Documentaries” screening and lecture will be held at the Bien Bookstore tomorrow afternoon. Both activities offer free admission, please refer to the TIDF Facebook page and official website (www.tidf.org.tw) for detailed information on the events and films.