"MONO X: Children on the edge of itchy-tectonics – Taiwanese New Experimental Films"

SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 6, 2016 @ Ace Hotel - Liberty Hall
20 West 29th Street, New York, NY, 10001
1:30 - 4:30 PM

PROGRAM

Co-presented by Tzu-An Wu (in-person), Wen Hsu, L/Y, The Other Cinema and MONO NO AWARE
New York Premiere of works on video by : Dooll Chao, Lin Mao, Kaire Wang, Ya-Ting Hsu, Huang Ya-Li, Ye Mimi, Tzu-An Wu, Yin-Ju Chen, Hsu Tsen-chu, Shake, James T. Hong, and Lin Shih-Chieh.

This programme is a collection of the younger generation of Taiwanese experimental films. Locates in the tight corner between geographical and cultural political plate tectonics, the island rides on the eruption dynamics which converges as well as destructs. These millennials filmmakers grow up from the rise and fall of Taiwanese New Wave Cinema, and the dilemmas of the contemporary moving images: forms, media, and institutionalization… While date lines vanishes, cross-national transferring turned common, they emerge from the foundation of transformations, friction and tickling between these gaps are here to stay.

Taiwan’s experimental films start to flourish in 1978 for the government founded competition “Golden Harvest Awards for Outstanding Short Films”. Filmmakers consider the award a testing ground for them to further produce feature films, since then experimental films became a genre for younger filmmakers to start their career. Nonetheless when filmmakers have chances to enter into film industry, experimental filmmaking somehow became a past tense activities. A result of which is that experimental film in Taiwan has a fragmental and dim history.

In this collection, the filmmakers were born after ‘78, while their understanding of experimental cinema differs from their predecessors. Their works become more visible for various international platforms and festivals start to emerge. We connect some of the most active and vivid experimental filmmakers from Taiwan and present their works through this special occasion of Mono No Aware X.

With Mono No Aware X, The Other Cinema presents the programme “Children on the edge of itchy-tectonics : Taiwanese New Experimental Films.” This programme is a collection of the younger generation of Taiwanese experimental films, manifesting a certain quality not yet named about the place, the generation and the discipline. We connect some of the most active and vivid experimental filmmakers from Taiwan and present their works. Many of these works have been shown in various international platforms separately, through this special occasion it would be the first time they been showcased under the same frame.

The Other Cinema is a curators and filmmakers collective based in Taipei and New York, it was founded in 2015 and was originally an on-line film club that shares ideas and interest on films, moving images, video art and all the time-based media arts. In 2016 The Other Cinema Collective starts to organize film screening events and talks in Taiwan, it’s first curatorial project “Every film is an enigma: moving image in the black box and white cube” will be held at Soulangh Cultural Park in May 2017.

Ace Hotel New York reinvents the urban hotel for the people who make cities interesting. With a sense of curiosity and respect for the history and culture of New York City, the 12-story hotel lives in a historic, turn-of-the-century building in Midtown Manhattan. The space serves up engaged fashion retail, a Michelin-starred restaurant and eloquent, mischievous and interesting answers to the travel experience.

Ace Hotel and MONO NO AWARE have formed a partnership through the series Studio Visits. Studio Visits is a quarterly series inviting hands-on makers to visit the Ace Hotel New York Lobby and interact with the public, sharing basic principles about their practice. This last July Ace welcomed local filmmakers of MONO NO AWARE for an afternoon of camera-less animation on film where participants worked directly on film, creating fun experimental loops to take home.