3rd Sub-Tropical Independent Film Festival, Taipei
Taiwan’s lovers of imaginative film who have been eagerly
anticipating the next edition of the Sub-Tropical Independent Film Festival
need wait only a few days more. The third festival is nearly here: 2025
May 10 Saturday. National Taiwan Normal University (NTNU) provides the venue.
Once again, planners Barry Hall and Li-Ting Huang have arranged the short films
into three programs, with this year’s screenings scheduled at 14:00, 16:00, and
18:50. Check the end of this article for ticket purchase information.
As the acronym might imply, STIFF doesn’t mind a few long shadows and a bit of
pungency in its off-road explorations of cinematic power. As festival planners describe it,
‘We’re looking for the offbeat, the weird, the experimental, the eccentric, the
startling, the uncanny, the inexplicable. We want films that ask more questions
than they answer. Films that understand the rules of filmmaking but know when
to break them. Quality doesn’t mean formulaic.’
________
The 2024 STIFF edition was a win all around. Short films from a variety of
different countries were screened, and each entry gave expression to a distinctive
cinematic voice. The venue was well-equipped for screenings and well-appointed
for audience comfort. Every film was subtitled in both English and Traditional
Chinese. The 2024 event marked the first in the three-program format, which
proved popular with audiences and now appears likely to endure.
2024 Sub-Tropical Independent Film
Festival
Metro Link International Hall, Taipei
March 9 Saturday
Program A (14:30)
Nocturnal Burger (India & USA)
A Kind of Testament (France)
Lacrimosa (Germany)
Shards (Sweden)
Sèt Lam (France & Canada)
Program B (16:30)
Into the Emerald Sea (Japan)
Sad Colour (Japan)
Again3small (Taiwan)
Sakura (Japan)
Cicada (Taiwan)
Program C (19:30)
Reprise (Germany)
My Mother’s Girlfriend (India)
Admissions of Desire (USA)
21 . . . (India)
We Bites Us (Finland)
Alabaster (Luxembourg)
Amid three programs of strong entries, Nocturnal
Burger held pride of place for many. In this short film by Reema Maya, a
young girl with a haunted look is brought into a police station. Something has
happened that she lacks the words even to describe, yet her rescuer knows a few
of them and brings the fire. The telling of this story could have gone awry any
number of ways, but viewers are in the hands of storytellers here who calibrate
everything with sure hands. Ms Maya’s entire team is committed and the
composition of each shot is a study. Nocturnal
Burger opened the festival and set a high bar for everything that followed.
I can hardly add anything new to all that has been written about this film. See
it.
Sèt Lam is a black-and-white film that
explores great mythic themes in distinctive style. Ingmar Bergman and Barry
Jenkins would both appreciate what happens here. You can’t take your eyes off
anyone in this charismatic cast. Every actor brings a powerful screen presence,
and the personification of Death in the film is unforgettable.
The quasi-documentary film, 21…
quietly challenges our viewing habits. We are shown outdoor spaces during an
interval of time when humans everywhere have retreated indoors. As the invisible
threat of Covid rages worldwide, the sidewalks and parks in an Indian
neighbourhood are taken over by flitting birds, burrowing rodents, and sleeping
dogs. All of humanity that we encounter in this film comes filtered through artefacts
of recording and broadcast media. Here is a contemplative work that observes
what is nearby and finds the sublime.
Admissions of Desire shows us a phone
conversation—the first beginnings of a connection that could perhaps end up being
a big one in multiple lives. The medium suits the message: the film looks as if
it might have been shot on 16mm film, and whenever we hear a voice we are
always shown the person responding. Totally believable characters and
conversation give Admissions the feel
of a documentary as an observant camera tracks nonverbal gestures that tell as
much of the story as the dialogue. Capable direction and editing give the film
exactly the right pace. It would be fun to sit with Richard Linklater while
watching this one.
Many short films tend to be high-concept films. As Mr Hall has observed, the
short form allows minimal time for character and plot development but suits
well the testing of a thesis. Many of the concepts in 2024 explored, directly
or indirectly, the nature of visual storytelling itself. Two films in
particular dive right into this theme. Reprise
and Again <3Small present stories
within stories, with Reprise standing
out for sumptuous lighting and cinematography.
A Kind of Testament is a fully
animated short film of rare power. A woman narrates her experience of learning that
photographs from her social media posts have inspired—been appropriated for?—art
works published by another woman she does not know.
In Sakura a discarded sex doll is
rescued by a man who happens up on it in a park. The doll, able to converse with
his rescuer, asks to be returned to his last owner for a proper goodbye. When
the anthropomorphically rendered anthropomorphic object is reunited with his
otaku-styled object of desire, it’s a match made in uncanny valley—a scene on
the border stripe of authenticity and artifice.
The classic story of Pygmalion and Galatea provides a few riffs for Alabaster. At a museum entrance, performers
don costumes and strike poses in representation of various living creatures. None
are what most viewers would describe as cuddly, as the performers tend to
gravitate more toward invertebrates. After a turbulent transition the project reaches
its ideal, if ironic, culmination when the performers—costumes, poses and all—head
into nature to take human form as statues.
Sad Colour ushers us into a
near-future world where sorrow is the mark of normality. Its heroine finds
herself insufficiently sad and thus in need of cure. A compelling performance
by Mayu Ozawa is rendered in compelling cinematography.
Into the Emerald Sea tells the story
of a young woman returns from abroad to find her grandmother. The older woman
has died and is now reborn as a sea turtle. Outstanding puppet work and a
committed performance by the cast make the surreal premise feel perfectly natural.
Emerald Sea marks an early outing for
its creator, and she has assembled a resourceful team to realise her vision.
Animation augments live action in the trippiest film of the festival. We Bites
Us gives bodily orifices, and the fluids they excrete, their voice. Here at
last is everything blood vessels, navels, mucus, vulvas, sweat glands, ear wax,
and tear ducts have been dying to tell us, and it’s quite the memo. Director Karolina
Kucia benefits from a fearless cast in taking us all down the rabbit hole.
These are just a few highlights in three strong programs of short films with no
weak spots. 2024 saw STIFF striding out in confidence in only its second
iteration. An added bonus for Taipei film lovers was the presence of several
distinguished artists whose films were screened. Guests included: Ryu Yoshikawa,
producer and principal actor in Sakura製片及演員
along with actor Kota Fuji and Eiichi Takahashi, director of both Sakura and Sad Colour; the director of Again2
small, Hsieh Tsung-Yu 謝宗諭導演; the director of Cicada, Tseng Yung-Nung 曾元農導演;
and festival director Li-Ting Huang interviewing Sad Colour actress Mayu Ozawa.
2024 Awards, Sub-Tropical Independent
Film Festival
2024 亞熱帶獨立影展得獎名單
Best Short Film 最佳短片得獎者:
Sakura
Best Directing 最佳導演得獎者:
Ganaël Dumreicher, Alabaster
Best Acting 最佳演員得獎者:
Sushama Deshpande, My Mother’s Girlfriend
Best Cinematography 最佳攝影得獎者:
Vadim Alsayed, Sèt Lam
Best Screenplay 最佳劇本得獎者:
Asuka Lin, Into the Emerald Sea
Best Editing 最佳剪輯得獎者:
Élodie Fouqueau and
Jean-Marie Lengelé, Sèt Lam
Best Sound Design 最佳聲音設計得獎者:
Lucien Krampf and Matthieu
Gasnier, A Kind of Testament
Audience Choice 最佳觀眾投票獎: A Kind of Testament
Congratulations to all! 恭喜2024年本屆得獎名單！
________
Plan now to be part of next weekend’s event.
2025 May 10 Saturday
3rd Sub-Tropical Independent Film Festival
3 programs of imaginative short films
NTNU Campus, Taipei, Taiwan
各單元放映場次 Schedule
單元 Program A 14:00
單元 Program B 16:00
單元 Program C 18:50
(單元B放映結束後會有該場次主創團隊進行QA環節.
A Q&A session will follow Program B.)
影展日期 Date : May 10th/ 5月10日
Online Ticket 網路購票 NT$250
At the Door 現場購票 NT$275
台灣師範大學本部英語系8F • NTNU English Department
8F
106台北市大安區和平東路一段162號
8F, No. 162, Section 1 Heping East Road, Da’an District, Taipei City
Ticket Purchase
https://filmfreeway.com/Sub-TropicalIndependentFilmFestival
Additional information
https://www.facebook.com/SubTropicalIFF
