Helsinki Taiwanese American Film Festival ONLINE, FOR FREE & OPEN TO THE WORLD

The University of Helsinki will be hosting its first Taiwanese American Film Festival this June! From June 6th to June 15th, this festival will showcase five short films by Taiwanese Americans filmmakers and a feature documentary about the Taiwanese diaspora experience. This will be the first time these films will be screened together for a Nordic audience. Ranging from dramedy to horror to documentary, these stories explore returning back home and the (re)connection and disconnection with one’s family, culture, and language in an unfamiliar familiar environment.

The Helsinki Taiwanese American Film Festival hopes that through film, audiences may get a glimpse through the Taiwanese American lens of the push and pull of cultures and traditions between old and new homes, and coming to terms with one’s multi-cultural identity. REGISTER BEFORE JUNE 5th HERE.

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Short Films

Ahma & Alan 阿嬤與阿倫 (2019, 23 min)

by James Y.Shih

A Taiwanese grandma (ahma) has to travel from a rural town in central Taiwan to the capital city of Taipei in the north to pull Alan, her American-born grandson, out of jail before he gets deported by a vindictive police officer.

Jie Jie 姊姊 (2017, 15 min)

by Feng-i Fiona Roan

JIEJIE is a portrait of two young sisters being raised by a single Taiwanese immigrant mother in Los Angeles in 1997.

Huan Dao 環島  (2010, 20 mins)

by Norbert Shieh

A-Zhi returns home to Taiwan for the first time in many years just as his younger brother, A-Yong, is leaving with friends for “huan dao,” or a round-the-island scooter trip. An accident with A- Yongʼs scooter causes them to spend time together in a dysfunctional reunion.

Miss World (2017, 20 min)

by Georgia Fu

A young Taiwanese woman comes home from living abroad, to say goodbye to her uncommunicative father before he has to start serving time in prison.

The Visit 探訪 (2018, 15 min)

by Roxy Shih

A pregnant woman and her husband visit her aging grandmother in the rural mountains of Taiwan only to witness the older woman’s mysterious disappearance through the will of a malevolent mountain spirit.

Feature Documentary

Love Boat Taiwan (2019, 63 min)

By Valerie Soe

LOVE BOAT: TAIWAN looks at the allure of the Taiwan Love Boat, one of the longest running summer programs in the world, where college-aged Taiwanese Americans get closer to their history, their culture and each other. Throughout its history the Love Boat has served as a political tool for Taiwan’s government, as a means for Taiwanese American parents to insure the preservation of Taiwanese bloodlines, and as a site for romance for young Taiwanese Americans, reflecting Taiwan’s history as well as the history of the Taiwanese American community.

Please register here before June 5, 2020. You will then have access (links and passwords) to the films from June 6-15. You will also get the invitation to join the online zoom meeting with the filmmakers to explore these films together. The zoom meeting will take place 9 AM on 15 June Helsinki Time. Julie Yu-Wen Chen (Professor of Chinese Studies, University of Helsinki) will host and moderate the zoom meeting.

This festival is hosted by Chinese Studies at the University of Helsinki (Finland)