A total of 75 productions are set to be screened at the Women Make Waves International Film Festival running Oct. 4-13 in Taipei City’s Huashan 1914 Creative Park.
Titled “Beyond Control,” this year’s edition of the annual festival includes works spotlighting such diverse topics as sexual harassment, violence, asylum seeking and homosexuality.
Festival opener “On Her Shoulders” is a 94-minute documentary that follows Iraqi Yazidi human rights activist Nadia Murad as she works to raise awareness regarding genocide and sexual slavery in her homeland.
WMWFF director Pecha Lo said the film was chosen because of its focus on many of the topics covered at the festival. It provides an opportunity for women in Taiwan to gain new insights on the myriad ways in which misogyny can manifest, she added.
This year Taiwan became the first country in Asia to legalize same-sex marriage. To celebrate, WMWFF is screening numerous queer cinema productions. These include the festival's closing film “A Woman is a Woman,” a 93-minute feature about the lives of transgender individuals in Hong Kong, a group that Lo said is a “minority within a minority.”
First run in 1993, WMWFF is Taiwan’s only and Asia’s largest film festival dedicated to works by women filmmakers. (RAY-E)
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