With the support from Taiwan’s Ministry of Culture, the Taiwan Academy of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Los Angeles partners with UCLA to continue the second year of the "Taiwan in Dialogue” Lecture Series. As part of the Spotlight Taiwan Project, this series gathers remarkable Taiwanese artists from a variety of creative areas to share their creations and thoughts. This April, directors Arvin Chen and Feng-I Fiona Roan are invited to attend two sessions on April 14 at 4 p.m. PT and April 28 at 6 p.m. PT.
Taiwanese-American director Arvin Chen has an MFA in film production from USC’s School of Cinematic Arts. His thesis film Mei won the Short Film Silver Bear at the 57th Berlin International Film Festival (2007). Arvin’s first feature film, Au Revoir Taipei, was executive produced by Wim Wenders and had its world premiere at the 60th Berlin International Film Festival (2010), where it won the Network for the Promotion of Asian Cinema (NETPAC) Award for Best Asian Film. His current works include romantic drama Mama Boy and Loveboat, Taipei; the latter is based on the New York Times best-selling Young Adult (YA) novel written by Abigail Hing Wen and finished filming in Taipei in December last year.
Director Feng-I Fiona Roan received her Directing MFA degree from the American Film Institute. Her works focus on female protagonists and family relationships. In 2018, her short film JIEJIE won the audience award at the Short Shorts Film Festival & Asia (Tokyo), one of the world's three major short film festivals, as well as a Special Mention at the Kaohsiung Film Festival and the HBO Asian Pacific American Visionary Award. She won Best New Director for her first feature film American Girl at the 2021 Golden Horse Awards. American Girl is based on her autobiographical family story and personal growth when she moved back to Taiwan from the United States.
The “Taiwan in Dialogue” Lecture Series is hosted by UCLA Professor Michael Berry. These two events will be held on Zoom while livestreaming on YouTube channel https://www.youtube.com/user/UCLAccs/featured. All are welcome to register online: https://www.international.ucla.edu/ccs/events.