Top documentaries unveiled at 2014 TIDF

2014-10-20

The winners of Taiwan International Documentary Festival were unveiled in a ceremony Oct. 16 at Huashan 1914 Creative Park in Taipei City.

International grand prize went to “The Empire of Shame,” a South Korea production by director Hong Li-gyeong exposing the cover-up by Samsung Electronics of life-threatening illnesses suffered by employees at its semiconductor plants.

“I wish to share this honor with those still struggling bravely against the ‘chaebol,’” Hong said, adding that by turning the spotlight on the plight of affected workers, she is giving hope to those facing insurmountable challenges.

Asian Vision Competition grand prize was won by “Yumen,” a mainland China-U.S. collaboration by Huang Xiang, John Paul Sniadecki and Xu Routao telling the story of a ghost town in northwest Gansu province. The documentary previously won accolades at last year’s Berlinale and Museum of Modern Art Documentary Fortnight.

Taiwanese Competition grand prize went to “Civil Disobedience” by Chen Yu-ching. The groundbreaking film captured a series of protests against Chen Yunlin, former head of Beijing-based Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits, during his first visit to Taiwan in November 2008.

Most Outstanding Contribution award was given to Green Team from Taiwan for more than 3,000 hours of footage depicting social movements in the 1980s that eventually broke a monopoly operated by three state-owned TV channels and helped secure the country’s democratization.

The awards were decided by panel comprising international film studies academics, moviemakers and cinema experts from home and abroad, including director Claude Lanzmann from France, Hata Ayumi of Japan’s Yamagutu Documentary Festival, modern artist Pimpaka Towira from Thailand and Sarafina Difelice of Hot Docs festival in Canada.

Source: Taiwan Today (http://taiwantoday.tw/ct.asp?xItem=222982&CtNode=413)