NORTH KOREAN DOC MAKER: LIVE @ URBAN NOMAD 2007
Hi everybody. This year for Urban Nomad we’ve got directors coming to Taipei to attend screenings of their films, and this totally rocks. Also, every night of the festival we offer a double feature, with one ticket good for 3-4+ hours of films. So here’s what’s on for the sixth annual Urban Nomad Film Festival, from Apr. 26 to May 6.
Nicholas Bonner, who has produced three documentaries on North Korea and has more than 12 years experience inside the ‘hermit kingdom’, comes to Taipei for screenings on Apr. 26 and 27. The Game of their Lives tells the story of the 1966 North Korea soccer team in and their phenomenal World Cup upset of powerhouse Italy. A State of Mind provides a one of a kind insight into the North Korea of today by following the lives of two teenage girls as they practice for a mass gymnastics performance dedicated to the country’s ‘Dear Leader’ Kim Jong-il.
Singaporean filmmakers Jacen Tan and Lionel Chok will come to Taipei for screenings of their films, Zo Gong and Crossroads on Apr. 30 and May 1. The 9-minute “Zo Gong” is an old idea that’s still made funny – Tan’s own railing against his cruel fate as a Singaporean office plebe/ aspiring film auteur. Chok’s “Crossroads” explores the humanity of a night-shift taxi driver, who ferries hostesses about and experiences alienation at close range.
We are proud to host mini-retrospectives of Taiwanese directors Wu Tung-wang and Lynn Chen. Wu produced a number of films while living in New York but has never screened them before in Taiwan. His piece de resistance, Hot Throbbing Cock, uses the character of a transvestite hooker with AIDS to address the issue of Taiwanese independence. Strawberry generation director Lynn Chen comes to cinema with both a cinephile’s love of movies and radical suspicion of their falsity. Her vignettes about Taiwan’s young generation manage to be carefully crafted movies as well as movies about movies at the same time.
Taipei Biennial artist Tony Wu (吳俊輝) is one of the leading figures in Taiwanese alternative cinema. He has organized two programs, including the program on Wu Tung-wang. The other, Chasing, Running, Jumping, Colliding is an endless cinematic rush of motion a la HK director Wang Kar-Wei, which asks: “What are we hurrying after?”
And last but not least, in “Convenient” Canadian Kelley Deon drives a scooter through a Family Mart. Now that’s friggin awesome!
Screenings with filmmaker Q&A:
The Game of their Lives : Thursday April 26: 7pm @ Capone’s
A State of Mind: Friday April 27: 7:30pm @ Taipei Artist Village Zo Gong: Monday April 30: 6:30pm @ Taipei Artist Village
Crossroads: Tuesday May 1: 6:30pm @ Taipei Artist Village
Chasing, Running, Jumping, Colliding: Friday May 4: 8pm @ Nanhai Gallery
Director in Focus: Wu Tung-wang: Friday May 4: 7pm @Nanhai Gallery
Director in Focus: Lynn Chen: Saturday May 5 @ Nanhai Gallery
Venues:
Capone’s, 312, Sec. 4 Zhongxiao E.Rd. 台北市忠孝東路四段312號
Taipei Artist Village 7 Beiping E. Rd. 台北藝術村台北市北平東路7號
Nanhai Gallery, 3, Lane 19, Sec. 2, Chongqing S. Rd. @ 南海藝廊重慶南路二段19巷3號
Tickets:
4/27-28: NT$250/ NT$150 students
4/29-5/6: NT$200/ NT$100 students
More info:
http://urbannomadfilmfest.blogspot.com
Critical Praise for: ‘A STATE OF MIND’
“Those with open minds – and maybe others, too – will find much to engage them in “A State of Mind,” an eye-opening peek at a stratum of life in North Korea via the lives of two young gymnasts prepping for Mass Games. Admirably non-judgmental docu about life in “the least visited, known, understood country in the world,” Variety
“The movie indeed offers a rare glimpse into an opaque world, letting North Koreans have their say while illustrating the hardships of their lives’” Washington Post
“…it is the insight into Korean lives that is breathtaking” The Times “An extraordinary documentary…a rare picture of a secret and little understood country” The Guardian
“You have to understand, no one has ever been allowed to see, let alone film, what you are witnessing” North Korean advisor to film crew
Clippings for “The Game of Their Lives”:
‘The greatest story never told’’ Wall Street Journal.
‘at the end of a four-year search Gordon and Bonner were heartened to find seven surviving members of the 11-man team behind the greatest shock in World Cup history’. Calum MacLeod, The Independent.