A retrospective of films by female filmmakers from Taiwan, organised by Taiwan IDF and Taiwan Docs.

In Taiwan, with the decreasing weight of filming equipment and the opening of related academic institutions, the mid-1990s saw the emergence of more personal documentaries that turned the lens toward the filmmakers themselves or their close family members, and a lot of them were directed by female directors. This year, along with Taiwan Docs, Taiwan International Documentary Film Festival (TIDF) presented its acclaimed ‘Taiwan Spectrum’ section with a retrospective of female filmmaking in Taiwan, titled ‘Triviality that Speaks Volumes: Personal Cinema of Female Directors Since the 1990s.’

With a self-reflective tone, the selection of 12 films in this programme attempts to re-examine how the idea of ‘the personal is political’ was realised through documentary practice, filmically contemplating the idea of the female body, desire, emotions, family, adolescence, pregnancy and menstruation, while unveiling various types of restraints imposed on women by the society. Note: some of the short films are handpicked from the ‘Ebbs of Mothers, Flows of Daughters,’ programme curated by experimental artist WU Tzu-an which navigates another path for the audience to see how women directors interpret their emotions and experiences through an innovative visual language.

All the films are available for free from November 7- November 20 and will thereafter be available for rentals and via subscriptions.