First Taiwanese Film Festival launched

TWFF opened its door last night at the Norm Theatre in UBC. …

As I announced in my previous post, UBC students of UBCLE have launched the 1^st Taiwanese Film Festival in Vancouver.

I was there and the opening ceremony was a success, complete with a lot of applause and cheers. It was quite professionally led by this group of students, with a balance of good looks, good humour and emotional songs.

The crowd was reasonably large for a first; of course the theatre was not full but there were all together officials, students, journalists and general public. The only bemol as far as I'm concerned is that minors were not allowed because they were serving some alcohol, which I find very unfair: I was not able to bring Lucas and he had to stay with some friends for the afternoon.

The 1st movie presented was "Let It Be", a Taiwanese language, with English subtitles, documentary about the harsh life of rice farmers in Taiwan. I only stayed for the first 5 minutes but the crowd's reaction was really good: everyone was laughing hard at the old couple cracking jokes at each other every time they open their mouth.

For what I heard, the audience was very pleased and there were even more spectators for the 2nd feature, the movie "Do Even".

I'll go today to watch Let It Be and tomorrow Do Even. Unfortunately, that's all I'll be able to see. Let's hope there will be a 2nd installment of the festival next year. If I judge by the reaction of the representative of TECO (Taiwanese Economic and Cultural Office in Vancouver, Taiwan's official representation office abroad, a sponsor of the event), there will be definitively be another festival!

So, what are you waiting for? If you're in Vancouver this week-end, head over to UBC and enjoy a slice of Taiwanese culture served up by these very friendly people!