2017
Taipei Film Festival
閉幕片｜最佳紀錄片提名
閉幕片｜最佳紀錄片提名
Everyone feels lonely sometimes. Loneliness is, perhaps, a uniquely human emotion—one with a distinct texture all its own. Even when we're surrounded by others, the feeling of being alone can still linger quietly in the background. Some people embrace their solitude and pour it into their art. Others open up to someone else. But no matter how we deal with it, loneliness never truly disappears. I’m not someone who’s afraid of being alone. In fact, I sometimes find comfort in it. This playlist is built around people I deeply admire—artists, dancers, actors... And as I watched these films, I realized they all had their own special ways of being with loneliness. They embraced it—and in doing so, radiated an unforgettable kind of presence. These stories gave me new energy. I hope they do the same for you.
To document an extraordinary soul through the lens is to constantly wrestle with the dilemma of completeness. How can one capture the vastness of a life within the limited time of a film? It challenges the filmmaker’s depth of understanding and precision of perspective. Rather than striving for an all-encompassing portrait, it may be more powerful to focus on select moments—those glimmers that illuminate the subject’s essence. The camera becomes not only a tool to pierce through the surface, but also a means for sincere conversation with the person in front of it.
Over the past century, modern poetry has redefined the meaning of "poetic" time and again. Similarly, poetic cinema—originally pioneered by directors like Andrei Tarkovsky—has gone through countless divergences, clashes, and disruptions. Today, to label a film simply as “poetic” can feel almost reductive. Cinema’s engagement with poetry has long since moved beyond imitation; it has entered a stage where it redefines poetry itself—pointing to unexpected forms and aesthetics, even suggesting new directions for literature to break through its own limits. The five films I’ve selected reflect these expanded poetic sensibilities: Iron Moon — a raw yet tender documentary on labor rights and worker-poets in China The Cordillera of Dreams — a reflection on Chile’s shadowed history Manfei — an off-centered biographical portrait of a pioneering dancer The Man with the Camera — an experimental film on novelist Liu Na’ou Nomad: In the Footsteps of Bruce Chatwin — a return to the spirit of romanticism through Werner Herzog’s lens. These works may offer us a way to reexamine the world—not only as filmmakers or viewers, but with the vision of poets.
Beauty is accidental, spirited, emotional, critical—a series of seemingly related, yet leaping descriptions. My daily task is to actively feel beauty, but there's simply too much of it—in the scenery, in words, in films... And so, I walk slowly along the path of cultivating beauty, as a nineteen-year-old, allowing the world to steep me in its essence, however it pleases.