“Traces of the Future VR360 Screenings” kicked off Aug. 11 at the Osaka City Central Public Hall as part of We TAIWAN, a Ministry of Culture project for Expo 2025.
Running through Aug. 20, the program is divided into four themes: A Glimpse Back at Home, Landscapes of Memory, Just for You Trilogy and Traces of Memory. According to the MOC, the featured 10 films touch on such topics as family issues, memory, gender identity and trauma.
One of the films, a joint production among filmmakers from Taiwan, Japan and the U.K. entitled “Address Unknown: Fukushima Now,” examines a community’s life after the 2011 disaster and considers how belonging must be reimagined in the aftermath. Another piece, “Home,” brings viewers along as director Hsu Chih-yen’s grandmother reminisces about a family reunion on a summer afternoon.
The ministry said some of the participating filmmakers have seen their works nominated for international awards. Among these, “The Man Who Couldn’t Leave” won the Best Experience Award in the Immersive Content Competition at the 2022 Venice Film Festival for its presentation of the experiences of a victim of the White Terror, a period of suppression and prosecution of political dissidents under martial law in Taiwan between 1949 and 1992.
According to the MOC, the cultural engagement initiative has attracted around 60,000 in-person participants since its launch Aug. 2, while more than 35,000 players have played the a-We TO GO online game. (SFC-E)
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