Ep 91 | Austin Asian American Film Festival: Prismatic Taiwan, A Series Celebrating Queer Taiwanese Cinema

Aug 24, 2020

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A note from Talking Taiwan host Felicia Lin:

Prismatic Taiwan, is a virtual, six-film series celebrating the past and present of queer Taiwanese cinema, co-presented by the Austin Asian American Film Festival (AAAFF). I recently spoke with Hanna Huang, the Executive Director of the Austin Asian American Film Festival and Josh Martin of the special programs team about the lineup of films that span 1970-2016. As you’ll hear in the interview, a lot of research and thought went into the film selections. The films offer a different perspective on Taiwan’s history and insight into Taiwan’s LGBTQ history. You can watch all six films for under $15 and Talking Taiwan listeners can also get an additional $2 off when they use the code: TALKING.

Next week’s episode will feature my interview with one of the film directors, Huang Hui-chen about her film, Small Talk, a deeply personal documentary that was 20 years in the making.

Here’s a little preview of what we talked about in this podcast episode:

How the Austin Asian American Film Festival has screened many Taiwanese films throughout the years
The retrospective of six Hou Hsiao-hsien films at the Austin Asian American Film Festival in September 2018
How a Taiwan Queer Film Retrospective has actually been in the works since 2018
The Austin Asian American film festival started in 2004, but was known as the Austin Asian film festival until 2007 when an Asian American organizer, Masashi Niwano stepped in
The mission of the Austin Asian American Film Festival, which is to bring to light Asian and Asian American stories through cinema
Their programming is year round
The main film festival is usually held in June, but this year they had a short film online festival featuring 36 short films
Prismatic Taiwan, a six film retrospective of queer films spanning 1970-2016
A retrospective of Asian American films is being planned for the late fall (November)
The meaning behind the name Prismatic Taiwan
How they translated the word prismatic with the Chinese word for kaleidoscope, therefore Prismatic Taiwan A Queer Film Series has been translated into Chinese as: 萬花同志電
How the first film of Prismatic Taiwan, The End of the Track from 1970 was thought lost but has been recovered and is being reintroduced to audiences
How they narrowed down the film selection from over 20 films to 6
The one film that they couldn’t include in Prismatic Taiwan when the Austin Asian American Film Festival went online, Ang Lee’s The Wedding Banquet
The second film in the series, Outcasts (aka The Outsiders) as made in 1986 right before martial law in Taiwan was lifted
How they selected films that were not that easy to find
The River, was set in 1997 around the emergence of the gay club scene in Taipei
Not Simply a Wedding Banquet, set in 1997 is a documentary
Spider Lilies (2007) and Small Talk(2016) feature female gay characters whereas The River and Not Simply a Wedding Banquet feature male gay characters
September 5th live event, a Transnational Queer Activism Panel featuring Film Director Zero Chou in collaboration with Asian Cinevision along with others from the U.K. and Taiwan
Small Talk (2016) is a documentary film that was 20 years in the making and was executive produced by Hou Hsiao-hsien and Taiwan’s submission to the Academy Awards
These films tell the story of Taiwan’s history and queer history
How Director Tsai Ming-Liang, made the film I Don’t Want To Sleep Alone in Malaysia but it was banned there
Previously Tsai Ming-Liang had said that he wasn’t comfortable having his films in a queer film festival but that has changed since the legalization of gay marriage in Taiwan
How there were film distributors or filmmakers who didn’t want their film to be a part of the queer series
The background of Mou Tun-Fei the director of The End of The Track
How the design of the poster for Prismatic Taiwan was inspired by Kaohsiung’s Love River
Prismatic Taiwan is offering a SPECIAL DISCOUNT to listeners of Talking Taiwan, just use the code: TALKING to get $2 off when you purchase your tickets from August 38-September 13