The Sunny Side of the Street
LAU Kok-rui
Hong Kong｜2022｜DCP｜Colour｜112min

Hassan, a refugee boy whose legal name is Mohammad Hassan, dreams of immigrating to Canada with his family. However, a car accident takes his father's life, and this twist of fate unexpectedly drags Hassan into gang trouble. Witnessing the situation, Hong Kong taxi driver Ch'en Pai-jih decides to step in and help. As the life experiences of two generations converge, a father and son of different skin colors and without blood ties embark on a journey of escape together, searching for a glimmer of light for the future. Director LAU Kok-rui focuses his lens on the issue of refugees in Hong Kong, exploring the "drifting" plight of outsiders and offering a profound reflection on the identity of being a "Hong Konger."

Have a Nice Day
LAU Kok-rui
Hong Kong｜2018｜DCP｜Colour｜25min

Babar, a Pakistani immigrant imprisoned for drug trafficking, is released after serving his sentence only to find that his wife and children have moved away from their original home. To win back his family, he tries hard to find a job everywhere, but repeatedly hits walls due to his ethnic minority status and appearance. Driven to a dead end, he borrows a car behind his good friend's back and embarks on the dead-end road of becoming an illegal driver... Director LAU Kok-rui, a Malaysian who has lived in Hong Kong for many years, draws on years of visiting ethnic minority communities, using down-to-earth and warm audiovisual language to bring out the cruel survival realities of being in Hong Kong.

Time:
10/26 (Thu) 19:00-21:30

Location:
Taiwan Association for Human Rights / Judicial Reform Foundation Taichung Office (In-person screening, limited to 30 attendees)

Ended

Notturno
Gianfranco ROSI
Italy, France, Germany｜2020｜DCP｜Colour｜100min

With ongoing warfare in the Middle East and relentless covetousness by major powers, tyranny, invasion, and terrorism shroud the sky in a vicious cycle, leaving people in perpetual darkness. Filmed over nearly four years across the borders of Iraq, Kurdistan, Syria, and Lebanon, and directed by Italian master filmmaker Gianfranco ROSI—the first documentary filmmaker to win consecutive Golden Lions at Venice and Golden Bears at Berlin—this film brings the daily portraits of ordinary people amidst the smoke of war before the eyes of the world.

Time:
11/09 (Thu) 19:00-20:30

Location:
Judicial Reform Foundation Taichung Office (In-person screening, limited to 30 attendees)

Ended

Eternal Spring
Jason LOFTUS
Canada｜2022｜Colour｜86min｜Chinese Subtitles

Combining animation and live-action documentary, this film recreates the "Changchun TV interception incident" that shocked the world. On March 5, 2002, 32 cable television channels in Changchun City, China, were hijacked by unidentified individuals who broadcasted nearly 50 minutes of footage exposing the truth about religious freedom. Witnessed firsthand by over 100,000 citizens, it startled the Chinese government. Less than an hour after the broadcast, the Chinese Communist Party launched a frantic crackdown. It is believed that over 2,000 people were illegally arrested, 18 participants were brutally tortured and even killed, and the film's creator, cartoonist Da Hsiung, was forced to flee to North America at the time. Director Jason LOFTUS faced multiple threats and pressures from the Chinese Communist Party during the production of this film, but stated fearlessly, "If I cannot tell the truth under conditions of freedom, I will regret it in the future."

Time:
11/16 (Thu) 19:00-20:30

Location:
Judicial Reform Foundation Taichung Office (In-person screening, limited to 30 attendees)

Ended

And Miles to Go Before I Sleep
TSAI Tsung-lung
Taiwan｜2022｜DCP｜Colour｜90min

Vietnamese youth Nguyen Quoc Phi traveled across the ocean to Taiwan harboring dreams of making a fortune, only to gradually fall into the status of a "runaway migrant worker." On August 31, 2017, he was reported for allegedly stealing a car and fleeing. A rookie police officer rushed to the scene and fired nine shots at Nguyen Quoc Phi, who was completely naked and unarmed, delaying medical treatment and causing his death. The director exclusively obtained the police dashcam footage to restore the bloody scene, and through recent occupational injury incidents involving migrant workers, statements from experts, scholars, and labor-management parties, supplemented by a poetic ghost perspective and voiceovers from Nguyen Quoc Phi's Facebook page, untangles the layers to reveal the plight of migrant workers and structural issues in Taiwan.

CHIEN Yung-ta
From Nantou, graduated from the Graduate Institute of Journalism at National Taiwan University, currently a freelance journalist, writer, photographer, and researcher, author of Ruins Youths and The Underground Society Built by Migrant Workers.

Time:
11/23 (Thu) 19:00-21:30

Location:
Judicial Reform Foundation Taichung Office (In-person screening, limited to 30 attendees)

Ended

120° 0′0″ E -135° 0′E Blazing Youth
YU I-chih
Taiwan｜2022｜Colour｜35min｜Chinese and English Subtitles

This film attempts to weave together a unique Taiwanese perspective on World War II from a comprehensive viewpoint, encompassing the geography, era, and psychological depth of Taiwanese participation in WWII. It holds significant meaning for filling in the missing pages of Taiwan's history.
Through the personal accounts of the few remaining Taiwanese soldiers who served in the Japanese military, the film portrays the real experiences of Taiwanese people participating in the Pacific War, the identity dilemmas caused by the transition of nationality upon returning from the battlefields and facing drastic changes in Taiwanese society, and even how these Taiwanese-Japanese soldiers viewed the anti-corruption, anti-tyranny actions of the Taiwanese people during the February 28 Incident.

27
HUNG Wei-lin, HSIN Pei-yi
Taiwan｜2023｜Colour｜20 min｜Chinese and English Subtitles

Hsiangying in the 1920s was an important stronghold of the "Taiwan Peasants' Union." After the war, it became embroiled in red struggles between farmers and land, before falling silent due to the White Terror in the 1950s. Based on the memoir of Hsiangying political prisoner Hung Shui-liu, this film collaborates with three local youths to collect images of history and memory. Through 27 disposable camera still photos and 27 locations in Hsiangying, recounting daily life memories spanning 70 years from the Japanese colonial period to the post-war era, it recreates events and spirits that have long vanished.

K’s Room – The Creation and Destruction of the World
HUNG Wei-lin
Taiwan｜2020｜Colour｜15min｜Chinese and English Subtitles

Published in 1960, New English Grammar is one of the bestselling grammar books in Taiwan to this day, and served as an entry point for youths of that era to learn English and reach out to a new world. However, its author, Ko Chi-hua, was imprisoned for a total of 17 years due to leftist ideology and sedition charges during the Martial Law period. Extracting example sentences from the book, this film uses a code-decoding method to depict the author's inner spiritual world in prison. Through reading English, family letters, and collages of archival footage, it responds to the relationship between the state, borders, and individuals during the Martial Law period.

Time:
11/28 (Tue) 19:00-20:30

Location:
Judicial Reform Foundation Taichung Office (In-person screening, limited to 30 attendees)

Ended