[New Taipei City] This year, Department of Information of New Taipei City Government cooperates with “Singapore Chinese Film Festival” to bring “Short Documentary Collection: New Taipei City Documentary Film Award” to Singapore’s Oldham Theatre. Not only opens up NTCDF’s vision but also connects New Taipei City with the world through directors’ camera shots and show the globe more about Taiwan.
The 10-day “Singapore Chinese Film Festival” will screen the closing film “Workers The Movie” on the evening of May 7th and invite the lead protagonist Li Ming Shun to share filming episodes with the audiences. Entering the 11th year and getting passed the darkness of the pandemic, the scale of this year’s Festival has been the largest in recent years. Singapore Chinese Film Festival is one of the most famous local film festivals of Singapore. A 10-day screening has been held at Gold Village Cinema and Oldham Theatre from April 28th to May 7th, a total of 56 dramas, documentaries, short films will be arranged in 40 shows, including 22 Taiwanese works such as “A Holy Family,” “The King of Wuxia,” “Day Off,” “Coo-Coo 043” and etc. The Department of Information of New Taipei City Government also participated in order to promote Taiwanese documentaries, uses this film festival as a way to communicate with filmmakers from all over the world.
New Taipei City has been promoting documentaries for a long time. The year of 2022 is when New Taipei City started to work with Singapore Chinese Film Festival which has been receiving good feed backs. This year, they have selected four best films from “New Taipei City Documentary Film Award” and organized the “Short Documentary Collection: New Taipei City Documentary Film Award.” This collection includes “Hearing from the Dolphin” by Director Zhang Hong Jie, raising people’s concerns toward the ocean through the point of view of cetacean veterinarian; "Spiral of Silence" by Director Chang Wei Chih, exploring rose coral and the rare specie Epimenia babai Salvini-Plawen in the deep ocean; “Adventure of Styrofoam” by Director Chen Wei Chi, raising the problems with trashed styrofoam along the coast; “Never Give Up” by Director Huang Shu Mei, telling the story of defense between environment and people’s hometown, showing the audiences of Singapore the beauty and sorrow of Taiwan through these films. Chang Ai Jing, the director of the Department of Information of New Taipei City Government, Tsai Jing Yi, the head of the news team of the Taipei Representative office in Singapore, Yang Zhi Yi, the manager of Administrative Office and Fu She Zhuan, the curator of the Singapore Chinese Film Festival, all presented to support Taiwanese Documentaries. Director Zhang Hong Jie and Chang Wei Chih are both invited to attend the post-screening session to share their film processes with the audiences.
Chang Ai Jing shares, New Taipei City Documentary Film Award has been held since 2011 for 13th years. Every year, directors from all over the world are attracted to participate for competition, so far has raised 111 directors and 120 excellent film works. The contents of these films not only includes ecological issues but also gender and ethnic issues of United Nations Development Goals (SDGs). Through this Award, New Taipei City provides creation crew with filming funds, even takes actual actions in supporting creators to take their first steps in filming documentaries, helps marketing and promotion, and aims to become the strongest support for filming crews. It is a great honor to bring the selected films of the New Taipei City Documentary Film Award to the Singapore Chinese Film Festival for screening this year. Hoping to use this opportunity to expand the vision of New Taipei City Documentary Film Award and let the world see these selective works of New Taipei City, in order to shape New Taipei City into a major Chinese International Documentary City.
Director Zhang Hong Jie also shares that filming documentary is a long process which takes a lot of investment of time and money. He would like to thank the support and assistance from New Taipei City Documentary Film Award, which provides funding during his filming period and professional advice to finalize the filming process. New Taipei City not only fills up the funding gap for his film, but also helped him to present the documentary in the best possible way. He wishes to raise the attention of ocean protection through his work “Hearing from the Dolphin”. The ocean and ecology needs care and support from everyone for common maintenance.
Director Chang Wei Chih, who also participated in activities of New Taipei City Documentary Film Award multiple times through the years, shares that he has witness the growth of New Taipei City Documentary Film Award and the expansion of documentary films in general. New Taipei City Documentary Film Award provides the contestants maximum freedom of creation and timely assistance to help with marketing and promotion. He is also happy to be able to communicate with the Singaporean audience through this year’s screening and hoping everyone get to bring back great feedbacks and inspirations after the interactive session.
In addition, the Department of Information of New Taipei City Government also paid a special visit to IMDA (Infocomm Media Development Authority) of Singapore this time. Through mutual communication, observation and sharing, they get to learn and understand more about the planning, development and marketing promotion activity of Singapore’s film and television industry. These can become great references for future promotion of New Taipei City’s film and television industry while seeking more possibility and future cooperation.
For more information, please visit the official website http://www.doc.ntpc.gov.tw.
