國際影片競賽

In a country with a notoriously fraught political past and precarious future, why does Long-Shan Temple exert such mesmeric powers over such diverse groups of Taiwanese people? What do they find here? Why do scores of local chars volunteer their domestic services to the Temple’s upkeep, maintaining an immaculately scrubbed appearance for public view? The documentary, shot in monochrome, attempts to capture the essence of this district, presenting realist and experimental images in a frantic collage that reflects the golden, slightly frayed soul of this proletariat’s utopia.

In his short, dazzling, devastating life, Franze Von Werra - legendary figure of the Second World War - attained notoriety in Germany and Britain. He made a name for himself as a daredevil fighter pilot and media darling of Hitler’s Thrid Reich, Von Werra’s escape from a British POW camp and his subsequent perilous flight to his homeland, only served to enhance his Iegend-as did his untimely death at the ludicrously low age of 27 in 1941. Through his posthumous media career, Von Werra has been canonized as an anti-hero. The director sets out to separate fact to fantasy.

This 15 minute short focuses on a girl, Tammy Ballaban, and her struggle with anorexia. A kaleidoscope of images and sounds reflect the dialectic between Tammy’s conscious and unconscious self. Tammy’s candid observations about her anorexia are interspersed with off-screen voices of therapists and family members, adding weight to the protagonist’s plight. In today’s media saturated society we are exposed to endless images of anorexic celebrities.

Inspired by an old parlor game in which players add words, phrases and entire sentences to an unfolding tale with little knowledge of what has gone before, the filmmaker and his crew went on a spectacular journey across the Thai landscape. Along the way they encountered people in villages who narrate the next chapter to a story that began life about a disabled boy and his teacher who provides him with pictures of the outside world. The storytellers include a pair of belligerent food-stall vendors.

An emotional journey to find the grave of a brother, who died in infancy in Israel in 1951, and information relating to his twin sister, who disappeared in mysterious circumstances at roughly the same time. “Love Inventory” brings into deep focus the tears, tantrums and sometimes laughters exhibited by four siblings as they struggle with the chaos and psychological disorder of modern life. We get to know their dreams, fears and worries as their haunting quest to recover the lost twins takes them to endless hospitals, graveyards and bureaucracies…