9/29/24 Virtual Meeting
10/26/24 In-Person Session and Performance
Taipei, Taiwan

Women Make Waves International Film Festival

Cinema Program 2024

Established in 1993, Women Make Waves Int’l Film Festival, Taiwan has been one of the major film festivals in Taiwan and has established itself as the biggest one dedicated to supporting female talents. It is also the longest running and largest issue-oriented film festival in Taiwan. Women Make Waves Int’l Film Festival aims to celebrate the achievements of outstanding female talents, to explore different aspects of female experiences, feminism, and beyond, and to promote equality and rights of all genders. By covering a wide range of genres, issues, and representations of gender, WMWIFF seeks to promote great cinematic arts by female talents and to advocate gender equality through films with feminist consciousness and various subjects.

In 1993, the inaugural Women Make Waves, jointly organized by the Awakening Foundation and B&W Film Studio, was the predecessor of Women Make Waves Int’l Film Festival Taiwan. In 2000, Women Make Waves was renamed as Women Make Waves Film/Video Festival. This marked the first time the film festival hosted screenings at the cinema. The film festival expanded significantly, solidifying itself as one of the major cultural events. In 2012, the film festival was officially renamed as Women Make Waves Int’l Film Festival Taiwan. 

In 1998, as the film festival entered its 5th edition, gender studies and discourses had become prominent in Taiwan. To ensure the prospect of the film festival, Taipei Women’s Film Association was founded in September of the same year. HUANG Yu-Shan served as the first chairwoman of the Association.  In 2001, the film festival established the model of nation-wide film tours, marking one of the first film festivals to do so in Taiwan. It has jointly held screenings with local theaters, organizations, universities, educational institutions, and cultural venues, in order to reduce rural-urban differences and promote gender equity through films beyond Taipei. 

The Body in Space——An Interactive Workshop

In this fast-paced, exhilarating, collaborative and interactive workshop, experimental filmmaker Lynne Sachs will guide her participants through her own evolution as a filmmaker, her own conception a “somatic cinema,” and work as a group to create our own live film performance, which will be presented to the public on 10/26.

Words from Lynne…

In filmmaking, we are always negotiating the photographing of images that contain the body. We bring experiential, political or aesthetic contingencies to both the making and viewing of a cinema that contains the human form. If a body is different from our own – in terms of gender, skin color, or age – perhaps we frame it differently without even realizing it. We all know that looking at a body on screen affects us emotionally, psychologically and physically? When we speak of “space,” we must consider three dimensional issues of the here and now as well as more speculative conditions that arrive when we contemplate the future.

Nov 8, 2024 at 10:00 am – Nov 10, 2024 at 5:00 pm, Subscribe to watch the course here.

Join us for an intensive workshop led by renowned filmmaker Lynne Sachs, where we will explore how one of the most challenging yet enthralling aspects of the documentary process can be the investigative nature of the practice.

In this workshop Lynne Sachs will take us on her own journey through the making of her soon-to-be-completed essay film “Every Contact Leaves a Trace”. By laying bare her own revelations and disappointments, she will help us to navigate how the “search” in and of itself can be as interesting as the discovery.  While celebrating the shared sensibility of the documentary maker and the detective, Sachs will ask us to expand our understanding of forensics, evidence, and proof within the parameters of her own artistic practice.

On Friday, interdisciplinary artist A.S.M. Kobayashi (Say Something Bunny!)  will share her approach to incorporating forensics into performative work, focusing on how research can function as a form of proof and artistic expression. On Saturday, Jennifer Reeves (The Time We Killed, When It Was Blue) will discuss the psychological dimensions of her filmmaking process, shedding light on how she navigates the inner lives of her subjects while investigating deeper themes of introspection. On Sunday, director, producer and cinematographer Miryam Charles (Cette maison) will explore how filmmakers can refract aspects of reality, offering innovative ways to think about representation and storytelling.

Over the course of the workshop, we will engage in discussions about hybrid approaches to depicting reality, experiment with techniques that challenge conventional expectations of documentary, and reflect on the role of performance in the creative process. Whether you are just beginning a project or are already in the midst of production, this workshop provides a space to investigate your own work through new and creative methods.

The workshop is open to filmmakers, media artists, scholars, and creatives at any stage of their projects. It will offer practical tools, fresh ideas, and a supportive environment for those eager to explore the investigative aspects of documentary filmmaking.

Seats are limited, so be sure to sign up soon. Please note that this workshop requires in-person participation, and all attendees must present proof of vaccination. For any questions, feel free to reach out to raphaelle@uniondocs.org.

With Lynne Sachs, Miryam Charles, Jennifer Reeves & A.S.M Kobayashi