More than 30,000 children and adults explored the world of children’s films and television programming at the Taiwan International Children’s TV & Film Festival held in Taipei last January.
“Children are the hope of all humankind, and high quality TV and films can influence them for the better,” says Huang Hwei-chen, minister of the Government Information Office and honorary chairman of the Taiwan International Children’s TV & Film Festival. Huang was speaking at the opening ceremony of the event, held earlier this year. “The next five days’ screenings are going to be very diverse and enriching for children and adults,” says Wu Feng-shan, chairman of the festival. Wu is also the chairman of the Public Television Service Foundation, which collaborated with the Government Information Office, Fubon Cultural and Educational Foundation, TSMC Education and Culture Foundation, and Fu Sheng Group for about a year to carry the festival to term.
Between January 9 and 13, the festival aimed to honor and reward the production of outstanding television programs and films for children, as well as encourage creative, interesting works that broaden children’s horizons and expose them to different cultural perspectives. All television programs and films produced for children in 2002 and 2003 were eligible for participation. A trophy and cash prize of US$4,000 were granted to the director or producer winning the prize for the Best Dramatic Feature, the Best Documentary, the Best Animation, the Best Television Program, and the Special Jury Prize.
The festival, held at the Taipei Youth Activity Center, featured 94 feature and short films from 30 countries, including Israel, Iraq, New Zealand, and Russia, as well as many Western European, North American, and Asian nations. The opening film was 4 Freunde und 4 Pfoten (4 Pals and a Dog Called Mozart) , a German production directed by Gabriele Heberling, followed by Bibi Blocksberg, a German version of Harry Potter, where 12-year-old witch Bibi inherits magical powers from her mom and saves two boys from a fiery death. She is later given a crystal ball by senior witches and becomes an official witch.
In the following four days, moviegoers enjoyed other films in the two movie houses on the first floor of the activity center. To cope with the language barrier, foreign films were subtitled in Chinese, and some of the films and programs were shown later on the public television channel to secure an even wider audience.
In addition to the movie houses, three pavilions on the second floor featured interactive activities that were provided to help the kids enjoy their time at the theater in between shows. “We wanted visitors to have fun like they would at a carnival,” says Angelika Wang, a key planner of the festival. The pavilions offered the kids a chance to experience filmmaking, acting, editing effects, and TV production in the Cinema Studio hosted by the Ifkids Theatre Company. There, they could also make their own animation by drawing or playing with clay in the Animation Spot, hosted by Ecole Amusant. Another pavilion encouraged the kids to experience different children’s cultures by playing games and singing with foreign friends in the German Park. Germany occupied a prominent role in the film festival due to its several entries and participation in planning over the past year, and several German directors and actors came to Taiwan for the festival.
A two-day seminar was also held, featuring scholars, experts, and film professionals from both Taiwan and abroad. Discussion topics included the state of international children’s television or film production, how to improve children’s understanding of the media, and the behind-the-scenes aspects of children’s television and film production.
The festival was not just an event for children, and the films did not always cater to kids alone. Take Blues Stories, an animated French film about a weird world in which cows always happen to rescue people. François Roux, director of the film, says that they simply tried to tell stories that would benefit general audiences, and he was surprised to be included in a children’s film festival. Then take Miss Entebbe , winner of the festival’s Best Dramatic Feature. It centers on children but talks about political conflict in the adult world.
The movies presented at the festival offered an opportunity for both adults and children to see the world of film in a way that makes movies more pertinent to our daily lives. The Public Television Service Foundation had estimated that the festival would attract 20,000 visitors, but it turned out that more than 30,000 children, parents, and teachers filled up even the stairs and aisles of the theater over the course of five-day festival.
Success did not arrive unaided. Angelika Wang started her work in March 2003. Wang is very experienced in planning film festivals, including the Golden Horse Film Festival, but it was her--and also Taiwan’s--first time to try to organize a children’s film festival. “There isn’t much to worry about when planning the Golden Horse Award [Taiwan’s most prestigious movie festival], because it has been held many times and we could just follow suit,” she says. “But this is something brand -new. I had to figure out what kids like to watch, and what films were educational.” Wang spent a lot of time studying foreign children’s film festivals, and came up with the idea that the festival should be “creative, fun, and multicultural.”
The planning team also came to the conclusion that the festival would be staged as an international competition, and started getting the word out to global filmmakers. Within two months, more than 200 productions from 30 countries were submitted. A jury of nine members including directors, an academic, a teacher, and a cartoon artist, nominated 30 productions for the international competition categories. The process of choosing 30 films among more than 200 entries, although full of lengthy discussions and debates, was rewarding. “I’ve learned a lot about the kids’ world by watching and talking about such a large group of children’s films,” says Tseng Wei-chen, one of the jurors. “It has enlightened my attitude toward life and has given me ideas on how to educate my daughter, and I believe parents and teachers feel that the films have been beneficial.”
An intriguing portion of the festival included films made by children and billed under the title “Kids as Directors.” From abroad, filmmaker Jean-luc Slock presented six of his peculiar projects. Slock and his team from the Camera Enfants Admis in Belgium travel around the world, find a group of children, and choose a topic to make a film. Un Monde pour Tom (The Whistler’s Tale) is a paper-clay animation created by 18 kids from all over the world. And L’eau, C’est la Vie (Water is Life) is an animated film he made with 40 kids from Burkina Faso. Yet in addition to films produced by children from other countries, what Wang really wanted to see was something created by kids in Taiwan. “I wouldn’t want to feed our kids with only hamburgers and sushi,” she says. “They may be tasty, but we’d also like ‘balanced diet,’ wouldn’t we?”
So in August last year, some primary school teachers were invited to participate in a training course. Several well-known local directors guided them through the basics of filmmaking. The participating teachers then submitted their proposals, and went back to school. With some help from professional directors, the teachers then guided their students to direct and perform in a series of ten-minute short films. These films were not part of the competition, but they were shown at the festival.
The results were encouraging. The primary school teachers and their students directed ten homemade dramas, doll animations, and documentaries. The students had all kinds of interesting ideas. Tu Chia-hsien and students from Chung Ho Elementary School in Keelung City, for example, completed National Anthem. While the national anthem is more or less a symbol of national pride to adults, the team recorded what their schoolmates did when singing the national anthem, and how they felt about it. The Ocean, the Kids directed by Chang Wen-han and students from Orchid Island’s Yeh Yu Elementary School recorded how the students taught Chang, who had been afraid of the sea and had yet to swim, to know, dive in, and embrace the ocean. The teacher, in the end, is the one who learns.
Wang herself, as the planner of the festival, also visited some of the filmmaking projects. When accompanying students from Taipei’s Cheng Fu Elementary School while they were shooting Ecology, Exploration, My Dream, she was very surprised that the kids could be so quiet while waiting for a tree frog to jump or watching for a bird to build its nest. Wang believes the training and the experience of devoting one’s time to pursuing something of interest will eventually benefit the kids later in their lives.
At the closing ceremony, President Chen Shui-bian shared his childhood movie experiences, telling the crowd that he did not have the chance to enter a theater until the fifth grade, after he aced an exam and the teacher rewarded him by taking him to a movie. The future president fell asleep in less than five minutes while watching his first movie, Ben-Hur. An epic film shot for an adult audience, though a winner of 11 Oscars, might not hold the attention of children. But the Taiwan International Children’s TV & Film Festival zoomed in on just the kind of stuff that keeps kids wriggling happily in their seats and gazing at the screen, watching with laughter, sadness, and, perhaps, anticipation for the next carnival of image and sound.
Best Dramatic Feature:
Miss Entebbe
Israel 2003 35mm color 80’
Director: Omri Levy
Synopsis
Thirteen-year-old Noa is convinced she can free her friend’s mom, who is held hostage, by kidnapping an Arab boy. She becomes involved in a dangerous adventure that quickly develops a life of its own, and turns deadly serious.
Noa and her neighbors try to follow adult patterns of behavior, but while entering the turmoil of political conflict and hatred, they discover that the solution is not to be found in the violent adult arena, but rather within their own hearts.
Critique
Israel, a country long embroiled in war and terrorist attacks, is full of opposing political viewpoints and opposing religious groups. How do their children view this world? And how do they treat those on the other side?
The director of this film portrays not only the story of the main character, a young girl, and society’s influence on her, but also her constant stumbling comprehension of life, from the wild enthusiasm of early childhood to the tentative explorations at the arrival of adolescence. Miss Entebbe is filled with lively humor and detailed depictions. It is suitable for older children and their parents to view and discuss together.
By film juror Saudi Wang
TSMC Animation Award:
Showa Shinzan
Canada 2002 35mm color 12’56”
Director: Alison Reiko Loader
Synopsis
During the Pacific phase of World War II, Yasuko is taken in by her grandparents in Hokkaido, northern Japan. When nearby volcano Mount Usu erupts, her grandfather, postmaster Masao Mimatsu, takes it upon himself to record its activity--an obsession that Yasuko understands even less than the man himself. As the realities of war creep into their remote village, the volcano continues to spew lava and smoke--and as Yasuko looks at her grandfather’s drawings, she realizes that she is witnessing the birth of a new mountain, named Showa Shinzan.
Critique
With precisely detailed animated characters and an elegant, sensitively rendered atmosphere of color, this film is actually a fine work of animation with ambition and attitude, but it is also quite cold and distant. Given the theme of facing the hardships of war, a more introspective, human touch and observant perspective might have brought it closer to everyday life.
By film juror Craig Au Yeung
Best Documentary:
Disa Moves to Japan
Norway 2002 35mm color 26’
Director: Benedicte M. Orvung
Synopsis
Disa is a tough, four-year-old girl. She is happy, curious, and full of funny ideas. When she leaves her native country and flies far away to the other side of the earth to Japan, she meets a new and strange world, which is totally different from the world she comes from. Disa feels like an outsider, which she does not like. She wants to become Japanese too.
Critique
With unorthodox techniques, the camera closely follows a little girl, and makes her childlike, completely unguarded expressions come to life on the screen. Only someone standing right next to the girl can approach her so closely, and capture all the levels of life and the child’s astonishing ability to adapt. This is an adorable aspect of this film. By examining this girl, the director attempts to view Eastern and Western cultures, and to present their cultural differences, with no judgment or prejudice--the film’s other attractive feature.
By film juror Tseng Wei-chen
Best Television Program, and Taiwan Award--Best Television Program:
Mighty Media--Breaking the Hollywood Codes
Taiwan 2003 Betacam color 26’
Producer: Theresa Chieh Teng
Synopsis
Mighty Media--Breaking the Hollywood Codes is produced by the Public Television Service in Taiwan. It presents and analyzes the techniques of Hollywood film industry on how to make hero movies. There are ready formulas in the making of both movies and heroes. Hopefully, the audience, after watching this movie about the film industry, will develop their own analytical ability. From now on, they can sit and enjoy Hollywood movies with a more objective point of view.
Critique
This program segment is part of a series, designed primarily to increase children’s understanding and appreciation of the media, and to teach children what the media industry is like in real life. It is also meant to encourage television viewers to apply more thoughtful consideration when viewing the media, and to be able to analyze media programming and play a more active role in their own media consumption.
Such subject matter is quite unique among the film festival’s offerings. Originally the jury panel was concerned that this material might be too specialized. However, the subject is the content of Hollywood films, and the program makes use of several short segments from various motion pictures. These factors increase the viewing appeal of the program. Adding research analysis at the end of the program has the effect of underscoring the essential points.
The performances of both the hosts and the minor actors are above par, and postproduction results are quite good. With the added educational value of the contents, it is an exceptionally good program.
By film juror Irene Chen
Taiwan Award--Best Picture:
Badu’s Homework
Taiwan 2003 16mm color 35’
Director: Cheng Wen-tang
Synopsis
This is a fairy tale told through the eyes of aboriginal children. The theme is of an aboriginal culture gradually eroded by modern life.
Critique
Industrial manufacturing and culture can be a dark and impenetrable subject, but the director of this film has used the mischievous footsteps of two boys to step into this serious realm of human affairs in a direct and intriguing way. Innovative, penetrating, and intriguing, this film could be described as the most remarkable thematic film for children to come out of Taiwan in recent years.
By film juror Saudi Wang
Jury Award:
When Mum and Dad are Both Clowns
Denmark 2002 Betacam color 42’
Director: Annette Mari Olsen
Synopsis
Victor is Russian and performs as a clown with his parents. For three months of the year he goes to school in Moscow. For the remaining nine months he is a circus clown, traveling all over Europe. Annette Mari Olsen accompanied him and his family on a tour in Germany as he tells her about his life and thoughts.
Critique
Narration by the main character provides an explanation of the entire documentary with a simple, clean style that allows the user to enter deeply into Victor’s inner world. A very unique young boy, he gets on the stage with his father and mother, doing funny things to make other children happy. But inside, he is growing up very quickly. Sometimes he feels dejected because of his father’s strict training, but he also places high demands on himself. Touring Europe has given him a different perspective of the world. Through the careful, detailed filming and editing of Olsen, viewers will easily drop their defenses.
By film juror Tseng Wei-chen
Viewers’ Choice:
Together
China 2002 35mm color 116’
Director: Chen Kaige
Synopsis
Xiaochun has been playing the violin ever since he was able to hold it. Now, a prodigy at 13, with several awards to his name, he is the pride and joy of his father, a chef who has put all of his hopes in his son’s success. Father and son set out for Beijing, where the boy will further his studies. The big city has a strong impression on Xiaochun, but not as much as it does on Lili, a girl he sees at the station and who turns out to be his neighbor. Lili is destined to become his first love, his first amorous letdown, and his first real friend. His father, on the other hand, never falters in his quest to find a teacher for Xiaochun capable of putting the boy on the road to international fame. However, finally having found the person he was looking for, the teacher pits the boy’s skill against his other favorite student, Lin Yu. On the eve of an extremely important performance before a jury, professor Yu tells Xiaochun a secret that will change his life forever.
Critique
Music education has long embodied the concurrent existence and contradiction of “art” and “utility.” Many families even view musical learning as an important path for their daughters to rise in social standing. As Taiwan has implemented an educational reform policy in recent years, various kinds of “technology” and “arts” programs have been misconstrued by many parents as methods of exchange. Thus, their original educational goals have been completely lost, a most distressing state of affairs.
This film, by mainland Chinese director Chen Kaige, treats a similar subject. It is deeply moving and stimulates reflection.
By film juror Saudi Wang