2023
DMZ International Documentary Film Festival
Korean Competition Grand Prize
Korean Competition Grand Prize
Asian Vision Competition Jury Prize
Best of Fests
Giloo presents a curated selection of finalists and award-winning works from the Taiwan International Documentary Festival (TIDF), capturing the trajectories of individual lives shaped by era shifts, social structures, and cultural traditions. The narrative scope expands from the frontlines of war and resistance to everyday anxieties, the complexities of tradition, and philosophical reflections on the soul. The lens shifts from macro-level upheavals to an intimate gaze. We witness individuals seeking exits from systemic oppression, debating existence through traditional rituals, and attempting to summon lost souls through song and imagination amidst the embers of trauma. This is a profound dialogue that delves into the subtle nuances of life, inviting you to experience the true weight of memory and action.
No matter where you are, not just in Taiwan, international movie fans can easily watch too! The first wave of films from emerging creators are now live in our international section. Featuring top selections from prestigious film festivals like Golden Horse Awards and Golden Harvest Awards, as well as many highly anticipated emerging works for you to explore anytime, anywhere!
These films document the everyday through diverse experimental forms, reflecting the entanglement of self, gender, and history. From the fissures of collective memory to fragments of perception, each work reimagines the boundary between life and politics, body and identity. Within the everyday lie emotion, memory, and unease — a quiet dialogue between self and world, extending into technology, belonging, and the imagination of the future.
The land carries memories. From afar, I often think of Hong Kong’s sea and Taiwan’s mountains. The days of my childhood—doing nothing, daydreaming in the warm summer breeze—remain vividly etched in my mind. Only after growing up, only after feeling lost, did I come to realize that beneath the soil lie many complex and thought-provoking stories: stories of colonialism and postcolonialism; stories of escape and homesickness. Through stories that flow between sea and sea, mountain and mountain, we hope to invite everyone, in the new year, to reflect across nations on the meaning of land and identity.
What is the relationship between art and society? Is it possible for art to exist outside of society, as a kind of “pure land”? How does art reflect the evolution of an era—or even move ahead of its time to drive change? This has been the central question I’ve explored since I first began creating. From the great creators of East and West, to protestors striving for change, and finally to local actors taking action on the ground. “Living in this era, what dreams can we still hold on to?” In pragmatic despair, I pragmatically believe that both creation and action, like water, can flow into and fill the cracks that our times so urgently need.