The 6 selected
proposals are marvelous and diverse, demonstrating the unique perspectives of
contemporary creators. Based on seemingly banal daily life, Faruk & Abdullah reflects the diverse
situations of Uyghurs and immigrants. In Life
Derailed relating a story of women’s growth, how people cope with trauma
and make choices true to themselves is depicted through the issue of same-sex
marriage referendum in Taiwan and an accident of derailment. Natalie strips the layers of a family seemingly harmonious but actually
divided, exploring prejudice, cultural conflict, identity and sense of
belonging. Only Sun Knows features Weng Nao, a pioneer of the
New Taiwanese Literature, as the protagonist, and explores the mysterious life
of the writer who died young. With Pakistani refugees’ situation in Hong Kong
as the backdrop, and Peter YAM joined as the executive producer, The Sunny Side of the Street depicts the
encounter between a lonely father and a boy lacking parental love, where a
series of conflicts and human struggles are triggered. The warm essay The Wild Grandma describes a group of grandpas
and grandmas reinvigorated through investigating a mystery, with retrospection
of the prosperous bar street in Yancheng, Kaohsiung in the 1950s.
The selected 12
trainees of the 6 director-producer teams include
the Uyghur young director Tawfiq NIZAMIDIN (director of the short drama film The Night of Arzu nominated for the best short film at the Golden Horse Film Festival,
and of Maria by the Sea jointly produced with Korean Academy of
Film Arts and premiered at International
Film Festival Rotterdam) and the emerging producer Echo KU (winner of
the subsidy for documentaries of Ministry of Culture in 2018; producer of the documentary
Loma-Our Home which participated in Talents Tokyo in cooperation with Berlinale
Talents); director Hsuan CHAO (director of the short drama film The Restoration nominated for several
independent film festivals and awards; winner of the subsidy for short films of
Ministry of Culture with Big Little Man), and Yu-Hao SU with rich
experience in international production and film festivals (producer of Run
Zombie Run that won 2019 Taipei New Horizon Screenplay Award; line producer
of The Cloud in Her Room which won the Tiger Award at 2019 International Film Festival Rotterdam).
Other trainees include
director Yvonne ZUO who has worked in the film and television industries in
Taiwan and China (director of the short film Coming of Age nominated for
Golden Harvest Awards; a member of Golden Horse Film Academy), and her collaborator,
French producer Aymerick PILARSKI who works in the film industry of Greater
China region for long years, and the cinematographer for Öndög by Chinese director Wang Quan'an which was shortlisted in the main
competition of Berlinale. Director Yu Tong WENG (director of the short
film The Double nominated for Golden
Harvest Awards, and of
Undercurrent, her latest film, shortlisted in the Taiwan competition of Women Makes Waves film festival in Taiwan)
is interested in the history of Taiwan, class and gender issues; she will develop
a feature film project in collaboration with producer Naikang ZHANG specialized
in screenwriting and planning for film and television.
In addition, Malaysian
Chinese director Kok Rui LAU (director of the short film Let’s Get Lost
nominated at Fresh Wave International Short Film
Festival in Hong Kong, and of Have a Nice Day invited to several
international film festivals; a member of Golden
Horse Film Academy) is selected for the Workshop this year with his feature
film project selected at Hong Kong – Asia Film
Financing Forum; he will be paired with producer Ivy Yu-Hua SHEN capable of film production, distribution
and international marketing (who participated in the production of An
Impossibly Small Object and The Road to
Mandalay). Director Ailun
HUANG (nominee at Asian Film Academy of Busan
International Film Festival; participant of the screenplay group of
“SIFF NEXT” of Shanghai International Film Festival) will develop her first
feature film with producer Denise LIN who was selected into the Workshop in
2019.
Complete list of
selected teams of 2020 Produire au Sud Taipei Workshop (in alphabetic
order of the proposals’ English titles):
Faruk
& Abdullah
(director: Tawfiq NIZAMIDIN, producer: Echo KU)
Life
Derailed (director:
Hsuan CHAO, producer: Yu-Hao SU)
Natalie
(director:
Yvonne ZUO, producer: Aymerick PILARSKI)
Only
Sun Knows (director:
Yu Tong WENG, producer: Naikang ZHANG)
The
Sunny Side of the Street (director:
Kok Rui LAU, producer: Ivy Yu-Hua SHEN)
The
Wild Grandma (director:
Ailun HUANG, producer: Denise LIN)
Moreover, exciting
news are coming from the trainees of the Produire au Sud Taipei Workshop of
previous years. Two proposals selected for the 2018 Workshop, Tropical Blue
(directed by HOU Chi-Jan) and Salli
(directed by Chien-Hung LIEN), and one proposal
from the 2019 Workshop, Hunter Brothers (directed by Hung En SU), were all recognized with Excellent
Screenplay Award in 2019. All these represent Produire au Sud Taipei Workshop’s
promotion of and contribution to script composition.
Produire au Sud Taipei
Workshop consists of three stages. The first stage (October 27 to 31, 2020)
concentrates on the trainees’ film proposals and scripts, and approaches from diverse
angles of production and distribution; it contains one-on-one professional tutorial,
and a complete series of courses on the skills for proposal training. The
second stage (March 2 to 5, 2021) and the third stage (July 7 to 8, 2021) focus
on the subsequent tracking and diagnosis of the scripts proposed at the first
stage. The second stage also includes instructions on international sale and
market; the third stage focuses on international co-production and open proposal
presentation, with expectation to vastly improve the script completeness and
increase the possibility of international co-production through modification
for more than half a year.