Gratefully I've got another chance to host the filmmakers at a local film festival here in Taipei City. I've had three prior experiences, two are for the bigger one called Golden Horse which is always held near the end of the year, one is for the same one which I'm about to start with again. I could't help wondering what the filmmakers I've hosted or met have done or are doing afterwards which I've wondered ever since after the great time we've spent together. I felt extremely privileged to have the chance of knowing them, so I briefly surfed on the internet for their updates, and these are what I found so far:
2007 Taipei Golden Horse Film Festival
Arthur Dong
Mr Arthur Dong, who made the incredible documentary about the history of the Chinese filmmakers in the USA since the very first one to the presently famous Ang Lee back in 2007, is a very devoted documentary filmmaker, so his next film might have to be waited for another decade, but I do sincerely hope that we won't have to wait this long. Though it's definitely not everywhere, if you're interested, I believe it's still available on DVD on Mr Dong's site, DeepFocusProductions.com, so are his earlier award-winning films. Also an extra tip, "Hollywood Chinese" is voted 8.3/10 on IMDb, very impressive rating. I had the best first experience from hosting him twice in a row. He came again for the award ceremony in which he won the Best Documentary award as we all expected two weeks later after his arrival for the opening ceremony. Both him and his partner Young were very kind and generous to me, and even their 3-year-old son Reed was fond of me which I still have no clue why he was. We still mail each other Christmas cards.
David Mackenzie
I was also lucky enough to have a brief chatting with the famous Scottish filmmaker Mr Mackenzie, who was here with his another award-winning film "Hallem Foe." Afterwards, he made a hollywood film "Spread" starring Ashton Kutcher and Anne Heche which is well-known for its explicit sex scenes. I wasn't surprised about it since his films always more or less contain the expressions of human desires. In his upcoming feature "The Last Word," besides re-teaming up his "Young Adam" cast Ewan McGregor, there're also other big names like Eva Green, Connie Nielsen and Stephen Dillane. The cast itself is appealing enough.
Tony Ayres
Mr Ayres' film "The Home Song Stories" was a major contender in the Golden Horse Awards that year, nominated for 7 awards in total, including Best Picture. It ended up won his actress, the outstanding Joan Chen, another Best Leading Actress trophy and also himself an original screenplay award. Mr Ayers and my guest Mr Dong have known each other ever since back in the old days, so I was lucky to know this Australian-Chinese filmmaker whose films, I later realized, that I've seen in the film festival a few years back. We even partied together to celebrate both of their winnings. Mr Aryes made a TV-movie "Saved" in 2009.
2008 Taipei International Film Festival
Bryan Chang Wai-Hung
Mr Chang was(I'm not sure if he still is) the chairman of Hong Kong Film Academy. As also a director, he is very well-known as an independent filmmaker in HK, but he's not so well-known outside of HK because of the same reason. He was here with his film "First Born Unicorn." It's a very experimental film, the ideas are interesting but could've been better-executed. But Mr Chang isn't like the eccentric underground filmmakers we've always imagined them to be at all. He's just simply easy going and would walk a long way under a very humid weather just to see the city more. I even had the privilege to meet some very extinguished film critics and workers because of him. It was surely a great time to listen to their ideas.
Laurent Lavolé
It was absolutely a pleasant coincidence for me to get to host Mr Lavolé, an independent French film producer. He has worked with big names like Catherine Deneuve and Élodie Bouchez who he praised a lot, but most notably, he constantly praised the Taiwanese actress Shu Qi as 'stunning!' He was here for a Brazilian film "Mutum" which is focus on one of his favorite subject matters of children. Because it was selected in the new talent competition, and the director Sandra Kogut couldn't make it here due to some visa issue, so he came to represent the film instead. He was such a nice guy and kindly introduced me to his dear filmmaker friends, the Chinese producer Zhang Xianmin who also acts from time to time(he played one of the major parts in Lou Ye's "Summer Palace") and the Taiwanese writer/director Su Chao-Bin. He even called his assistant to send me a copy of "Après Lui," a French film which he produced, right after I said I've never seen it. He went on to produce another children-oriented film "A Brand New Life" by the French-Korean director Ounie Lecomte and a French crime drama "The Queen of Clubs" by the French new talent Jérôme Bonnell.
Anaïs Barbeau-Lavalette
I didn't host Ms BL who is from Montréal, Canada officially, but since she's in the new talents competition as well, we saw each other often enough. She was with her film "The Fight."(The original French title "Le Ring" means "The Ring" as for the boxing match stage literally in English, but she thinks people would be confused with her film, the Japanese horror-cult and its Hollywood remake) There was one day, her host wasn't available, so she went to Longshang Temple, one of the tourists' attractions in town, with Mr Lavolé and me. During the tour in it, I showed her how the Chinese praying is answered by asking if her film will win or not, and the answer was a straight yes. A few days later, she did win in the competition. Was it me who bring her the luck? Or is it destined as answered? I only know that I was very happy for her. She released a documentary "Les Petits Géants" in 2009. It focuses on 5 of the kids who were the major acts in an interesting showcase of an Verdi-opera adaptation.
Yves Christian Fournier
Mr Fournier was another director in competition from Montréal. I was lucky to be able to see his film "Everything Is Fine" after their departures and was very fascinated by it. It was nominated for several major Genie Awards and won the Best First Film Award in the following year. I was happy for him wholeheartedly.
Delphine Kreuter
Ms Kreuter is already a French artist for a long time before she made her first film "57000km Between Us" which won the second prize in the competition. It's just as interesting as she is. She's so fun to be with, so even Mathieu Amalric took a part in the film without barely getting paid(well, I believe so). Ms Kreuter stayed for a whole months to experience more of the city. I met her a couple of times while she was still in town. Hope I can reunite with her in Paris when I visit there this summer.
Martin Duffy
Mr Duffy is from Ireland and based in Berlin. He started off as a film editor and released his directorial debut "The Boy from Mercury," which he also wrote in 1996. He was here as a jury member of the official competition awards but also with this debut film. It's warm and tender just as the person himself. I've luckily had a pleasant conversation with him. His last film "Summer of the Flying Saucer" was just released before his arrival here, and he worked as a film editor again in 2009 for an award-winning documentary "Komeda: A Soundtrack for a Life" which was made by his wife, who's also a filmmaker, Claudia Buthenhoff-Duffy.
Andrzej Jakimowski
Mr Jakimowski was another great guy who was also a 'new talent' in the competition with his second film "Tricks." He was harmlessly described as the hot shot among the contenders since he was already a regular winner in the worldwide film festivals. But he acted nothing like a hot shot at all. He walked in the rain with us, took the subway with us, joined us at the welcoming party and had to put up with our smoking when he only just quitted it. I sincerely hope to see his new film as soon as possible.
2008 Taipei Golden Horse Film Festival
Xie Fei
The Golden-Bear-Award winning Chinese director, Mr Xie, was the head of the jury of the NETPAC award for outstanding Asian films in the Golden Horse Film Festival in 2008. He has stopped making films after his last one "Song of Tibet" and became a full-time professor. His winning pieces "Woman Sesame Oil Maker" and "Black Snow" are considered important modern Chinese films. He was also invited to be a guest professor at the Art University of Taipei, so I got to watch his film debut "Xiangnu Xiaoxiao" in his last class which I finally attended. Even beyond my expectations, it was so well-made. Hopefully, Mr Xie will pick up another project sooner than I thought.
Ilkka Järvi-Laturi
Mr JL was here to attend the creation-investment conference for his new project "Kiss, His First" since it has a Chinese-related story. It was my first time as a professional translator, so I was afraid of not being capable of doing it. But it turned out fine(at least I think so), and Mr JL also generously gave me a copy of his early work "City Unplugged."(a.k.a. "Drakness in Tallinn") He has worked with big names like Bill Pullman and Irène Jacob in his last piece "History Is Made at Night."(a.k.a. "Spy Games") I'm happy for him because "Kiss, His First" has been archived on IMDb as in pre-production, so this will be his first film in 12 years if it releases on the date as listed.
There were also a few filmmakers I had a brief conversation with such as the talented Thai director Aditya Assarat who was here with his first film "Wonderful Town" and the Israeli director/professor Noam Kaplan who came to promote the israeli student films. I also made quite a few good friends who I worked with like Gretta, Yaxing, Ivy, Arthur, Matilda, and Tess etc., so these are all even more so valuable to me. The filmmakers I'll be hosting this time are the Paz Brothers from Israel with their film "Phobidilia" and Ms Zaida Bergroth from Finland with her film "Last Cowboy Standing." Both films are in this year's new talent competition. So I am looking forward to have another fun and fulfilled interactions with all the filmmakers I will meet.
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