Education Division, Taipei Economic and Cultural Office (TECO) in LA collaborated with Taiwan Academy to hold a reception and film screening activity for members in Taiwan Alumni Association (TAA) at Billy Wilder Theater on November 5th. Taiwan Academy in LA and UCLA Film & Television Archive presented the first-ever “What Time is It There? Taiwanese Film Biennial”. Featuring multiple premieres, restored films and guest filmmakers, the biennial showcases the impressive diversity of new Taiwanese cinema as well as several archival classics.
“Le Moulin” was screened on November 5th evening and many members of TAA and Taiwanese students were invited to join. The Education Division, TECO-LA also arranged an introductory session by Eugene Suen, Producer of Almond Tree Films, to specially introduce the development of Taiwanese films and the background and outline of “Le Moulin”. It was expected that these alumni who once studied in Taiwan and those Taiwanese students can have more understanding of Taiwanese literature, art and cultures through the film screening.
“Le Moulin” is a documentary in Japanese with English subtitles and lasts 162 minutes. From 1895 to 1945, Taiwan was a colonial territory in the Japanese empire. At that time, it was also the age of modernism around the world, a loose collection of artistic ideas that aspired to universality yet adapted to different local contexts. The director of “Le Moulin”, Huang Ya-li, systematically researched and meticulously crafted this experimental documentary, which reanimates the sights, sounds and words of the Windmill Poetry Collective. Founded in Taiwan in 1933 by Taiwanese and Japanese writers, the Windmill writers looked especially to French surrealism for inspiration in the midst of increasing political and military conflicts. More than any textbook or lecture ever could, “Le Moulin” ushers its viewers into the sensuous, experiential world of Taiwanese modernism.
After the film screening, the panel discussion was held by director Huang Ya-li, who visit the U.S. for the first time for the debut, Professor Robert Chi at Department of Asian Languages and Cultures in UCLA and Director Eugene Suen as the interpreter. The audience was highly complementary about the film and the director’s great efforts. The film was a valuable documentary for the history of the Windmill Poets, which was completely wiped out in textbooks in Taiwan. The TAA members and Taiwanese students all learnt a lot from it and gave a big applause to the director.
2017/11/5 Taiwanese Film Biennial: the Screening of “Le Moulin”. From the right: 2010 Mandarin Scholarship Recipient Lewis Henke, Director of Education Division, TECO-LA, Rebecca Lan, and Lewis’s parents Paul Henke who used to study in Taiwan too and Yukino Henke.
2017/11/5 Reception before the Taiwanese Film Biennial: the Screening of “Le Moulin”