22nd ifva Asian New Force Category Jury Meeting Transcript
Jury Members：Ernest Chan (Chan), Katherine Lee (Lee), Shen Ko-shang (Shen)ifva representative：Kattie Fan (Fan), Emily Ng (Ng)Fan:Today, we have to select the Gold, Silver and Special Mention winners from the 10 finalists.
The Gold Award winner will receive HK$30,000 cash prize and a Blackmagic Video Assist,
the Silver Award winner will receive HK$20,000 cash prize, the Special Mention winner
will not get any cash awards but will receive a certificate. I hope we can discuss the works
one by one and provide entrants with your advice and comments.

Lee:

What is the voting procedure?

Fan:

It varies every time, and depends on your discussion. We can nominate award winners andthen discuss them and come to a decision.

Lee:

We will vote in the end?

Fan:

Only when we cannot come to a consensus. I hope each of you will agree to the jury’s
collective decisions. The first film is Submarine.

Chan:

I like the work’s set design. That house is probably a set, and they must have spent a lot ofeffort making this set, which I find impressive. The dancing scene in the bar is impressive
as well, it looks nice and suits the film’s main theme.

Shen:

I like this film because it is like a metaphor for life. Even though it is a realistic story, it istalking about how the world at large is going one way while you want to remain behind. Itturns a very specific story into a fable. At the end of the story she follows along witheveryone, but turns back at the end. This is like people wanting to preserve their values in
the face of adverse situations, but one person cannot change the wider world. I have aquestion: the lead character has a tattoo that appears three times, the first time is when she’s
at home, and the tattoo is on her left hand, but it’s on her right hand when she is at the bar.
When she looks back it is on her left hand again. I was bothered by this because I didn’tknow the meaning behind it. I wasn’t sure whether it is a symbol or a mistake.

Lee:

I think it’s a mistake.

Shen:

I spent a lot of time thinking about this, and wondered what the cultural meaning could be.

Lee:

The background of this film is garbage collection, which is a global problem. The set-up of
this film is interesting and it is easy to get into the story. I like the fact that the lead characteris a woman who faces the world alone, while the rest of the people are like sheep who don’tknow why they are leaving, she alone decides to remain. Not only does she need to faceherself, but also her family’s opposition. Overall the film is smooth, but the ending is not1

memorable.
Chan:

Right, the beginning part is strong, but the ending is weak.

Shen:

At the end of the film, she looks back and then walks forward again. This is a way for the
director to signal to the audience, it is using performance as a means of expression rather
than telling the character’s life story. That’s why the film was an “A” film at the beginningfor me, but it went to “A-“ or “B+”at the end, so the film is a “B+” film for me.

Fan:

The next film is Microphone Test: A Letter to Huang Guo-Jun.

Chan:

To me this is a special film that is very different among the others. The most interesting
thing is the story-telling method, which uses live action characters and turns them into
animation. However, the audiences need to know who Huang Guo-Jun is to get into thefilm. This film requires audiences to have certain prior knowledge in order to communicate
with the work. I think it is trying to respond to Huang Guo-Jun’s writing. He was a
Taiwanese writer of fiction and short essays who committed suicide at a young age, and the
director of the film attempts to dialogue with the writer’s works. The attempt is very
interesting, but audiences need to have some basic background.

Shen:

The story uses Huang’s writing as its text, which talks about a film director, and the director
appears in the mirror reflection in one of the scenes and is involved in the filming. Then thefilm’s narrator, who is a female, reads out a letter from Huang to his mother, and also talks
about the narrator’s friend who also makes films. The work is interesting in terms of its
points of view, about whose story it is, why this story has to be told, who is thecameraperson and who is the story-teller. All these characters become animation, and whatis the relationship between these characters and the director. After watching this film, wewon’t feel for the characters because the director does not want you to be emotionallyinvolved. He wants you to try to understand these characters from a bystander’s point ofview, and that’s it. It is not trying to tell a complete story, and this approach has two
advantages. The first is that it is dialectical, and secondly, it recognizes that video is adistinctive medium. I appreciate that it attempts this dialectical approach, which I findmeaningful. However, whether it is the best work has to be seen in comparison with otherworks.

Lee:

I know nothing about the background of the main character, so I found it hard to get into
the film at first. Also there are too many characters, and I get confused about theirrelationships. I like the fact that it uses animation to describe these characters’ everyday
lives. I don’t mind that it uses this method of presentation with many characters. I treat
features and shorts the same way, it’s fine as long as the film is enjoyable. However, thecharacters and their complex relationships was one factor that bothered me when watching
this film, and I kept trying to find the film’s focus, but I couldn’t locate it. However, I think
this work is worth encouraging.

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Chan:

Including it in the finalist round is one way to encourage this work, and is an appreciation
to its creative intentions. It shows another way to make short films. Due to its complex
structure, it is not easy to draw the audience into the discussion.

Shen:

It wants to say that we all have our lives to lead, and who is responsible for telling stories.
We can tell our own stories, or tell other people’s stories. I recommend this work for Special
Mention.

Chan:

We can discuss this later. The next work is Santé. This is a self-written, directed and acted
work of the lead character. It is a story about a Palestinian girl living in Israel as a personof different culture and race than the majority. She tells a simple and straightforward story,
revealing some everyday occurrences, for example, how it bothers her to see a soldier on abus, the perplexity of racial identity and the longing for freedom, etc.

Shen:

For me, the meaning of the work is very clear. However, there is nothing special about theshooting method. The mise en scène of some of the films is accurate. For example, the lastscene where the main character dances in front of the barricades while the police andsoldiers look on shows how the two sides view each other. This is a successful shot. Up tillthen, the film has been just average, but this shot is very successful because it does not stir
up your anger. I quite like this film.

Lee:

Me too. The film is very accurate. The director plays the main role because she knows thecharacter’s psychological state very well, and her performance is very precise. Whenwatching this film you follow along with her experiences, and she takes the audience into
her life. The problems she faces happen in a lot of other countries. She does not want tocriticize but to express the problems that many people face. I agree that the last shot is very
good and leaves a lasting impression on me. This is my choice for Special Mention.

Fan:

The next film is River.

Chan:This is a film about a young boy. The most special part is the scene where the boy meets
his future self with his future girlfriend. The one who plays the future self is the director
himself.

Shen:

It would be better if the director didn’t appear in the film!

Chan:

The other thing the film does is playing with the aspect ratio. When the train passes, thescreen becomes wider. It perhaps takes reference from Xavier Dolan’s Mommy. The usage
in here is reasonable, but I think it’s a bit pretentious.

Shen:

The film concerns a young boy dealing with his father’s death, and uses a few different
time-frames to signal this condition: the present, the young man and his girlfriend, and thefather floating in the river. This set-up is good, but there are many flaws. For examples,shots that follow people as they move across the frame are meaningless and take away from3the realism of the film. Also the scene where the cousin takes him out and they stop at aplace for some noodles and then leave is unnecessary. I don’t know why the scene is there.
The realism of the dialogue, mise en scène, set design and acting keep wavering. The
concept has its good points, but there are too many unnecessary elements in the execution
and too many complicated thinking, so I think the execution of this film is immature and a
failure.
Lee:

The story is something the director has experienced or has feelings for. Telling a story likethis within a countryside setting leads me to expect the film to be realistic, but the mise en
scène affected my perceptions. I feel the director is trying to find a way to tell his story, but
he tries a bit too hard. Like people who have just learned to use film to tell stories, he is a
bit immature in his treatment.

Chan:

The film seems to be a graduation film, that the director simply uses what he has learnt
from foreign films, but fails to think about how to tell the story in his own way.

Shen:

That’s right, if he can concentrate on finding his own methods…

Lee:

Even if his own method is crude, it will have more substance because it’s his. Now he isjust using other people’s tools, and the outcome is not what he intends.

Ng:

The next film is Dadyaa – The Woodpeckers of Rotha.

Chan:This is also a unique film with strong visuals, and requires a certain level of cultural
knowledge to comprehend. My understanding is that there is a couple in a village in which
everyone has left. They construct some wooden sculptures, using them to summon the soulsof the people who have departed. In the end they, too, have to leave. As for why they havewooden sculptures? Perhaps it has something to do with their culture.

Shen:

When watching the film I try to fill in the gaps with my imagination. Out of all the films,
this one has the most striking images of nature, and its visuals are mesmerizing. However,in terms of storytelling…I assumed that the making of the sculptures is the old man’s
personal mission, and that the ending is his imagination. The film is about things that canbe retained, and even these sculptures will eventually disappear with time. Perhaps the
director created this film to honor a sculptor of wood that he likes. Because I didn’t
understand the story, it is difficult for me to give it high marks even though I liked its
imagery.

Lee:

I understand more about his creative intentions after reading the director’s statement thanwatching the film alone. The story takes place in a locale far away from us, so he can makeup his own rules. Within this world there are realistic and fantasy elements, but I don’t
understand how transitions between them. Perhaps due to cultural barrier, there are someparts that I cannot read. For example, is the singing supposed to be happy or otherwise?
Also the subject matter is deep and not easy to understand.
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Shen:For me, this film is between a rock and a hard place.

Fan:

The next film is White Tunnel.

Chan:

The story is quite clichéd, but as an animation, it gives audiences a different impression.
You see this kind of story a lot in TV series, but expressed as animation, there is a greater
sense of absurdity. The scene where the ghost of the old woman appears creates amysterious atmosphere to the work.

Shen:

In Taiwan, the animation and film industries do not work well together. A common problem
with Taiwanese animation is the screenplay, which often lack cinematic story-telling skills.
This animation suffers from the same problem. The story is clichéd, and the theme is about
filial piety. I agree that this kind of treatment gives the film a unique atmosphere, but
animation should try to do what live action is incapable of. I wondered if this film would
be equally valid if it was done by real actors? I think it would, so this film does not really
live up to the full potential of animation, and the screenplay is unimpressive. I don’t reallylike this film, although I appreciate its strong points.

Lee:

The animation is effective, and the background and character design are strong. However,I don’t know whether the characters are Taiwanese, which shows that this is a universal
story. I give the film high marks in this regard. However, the story is like an animatedversion of TVB’s Mystery Beyond, a series of supernatural morality tales. At the beginningof the film, I had high expectations, which the latter part did not satisfy.

Chan:

I thought the woman would open the suitcase in the ending, but for some reason theyskipped it intentionally. This arrangement weakened the impact of showing that she learns
her lesson. The next film is Wild Tides. The film is set in the south of Taiwan?

Shen:This is Yun Lin in central Taiwan. The land subsidence problem there is severe.

Chan:

The director is adept at making use of the landscape as part of his storytelling, which I findattractive. I appreciate the fact that he incorporates a lot of local scenery into the work totalk about a teenager’s struggles.

Shen:

The actors all look like they are non-professionals, and the side cast consists of local
residents. The protagonist’s father owes people money, and he is looked down upon andpeople won’t hire him as he goes and looks for work. He shoulders the troubles brought tohim by his father and is in a state of rebellion. He is a stubborn and proud young man. The
character set-up is very successful. At the end of the film, he braves the rising tides to try
to find the missing keys. The last shot is very long, allowing the audience to see thecharacter’s complex state of mind. On one hand he must deal with the burdens of life, andon the other he is scared. But there are some flaws with the film. For example, themovement of the camera in relations to the actors is mostly successful, but there are a few
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times when the camera fails to follow the actors’ movements. With the dialogue, theprotagonist goes to different places to look for work, but the questions he asks and the
responses he gets are identical, whereas they should be different according to the people’sline of work and social positions. The director was not able to handle these kinds of details,
but as a student work it is very successful. The director uses minimal means to tell a young
man’s coming of age story.
Lee:

The director is very successful in dealing with non-professional actors, who are capable offulfilling the director’s requirements. Judging from the actor’s performance, I give highmarks to the director. I quickly became interested in the protagonist, and I also like the longshot at the end. Not only does the protagonist need to shoulder the pressure of losing hisfather, he has to seek acceptance. When he gets rejected, it’s not just about losing a chance
to work. When he gets a job at last, he loses the set of keys. The sense of guilt he feels
makes him want to get them back right away. As he goes into the water, he does not knowwhat the future holds. The keys function as a motif, which symbolizes the keys to life. He
loses something that he has just gained, and I am very touched by this film. This is my
choice for the Silver Award.

Chan:

The ending is very powerful. It is both part of the plot as well as a metaphor for his life.

Fan:

The next film is The Manliest Man.

Chan:

This is the most dramatic film out if the 10 finalists; it’s a story about divine retribution
which satirizes a male chauvinist society. It is very effective in involving the audience into
the story with its simple plot. I find the scene in which the lead character chases the doctorwith an axe a bit strange, because everyone just keeps on singing and nobody tries to stop
them.

Lee:

Perhaps in that world, it is common for people to hit one another.

Chan:

That scene is suddenly quite surreal to me.

Shen:

The story is attractive. The infanticide scene at the beginning shocked me, and after that,you expect to see the protagonist’s sense of powerlessness. However, the latter part of thefilm is more clichéd, and the birth of the second daughter is too predictable, which is a pity.
The scene you talked about is surreal because you don’t know if people are celebrating, it’s
not clear if they are excited or indifferent. On the whole, the story is predictable and eventhough the shots are good enough that you watch it till the end, it does not leave a very good
impression. I don’t feel I have witnessed some new vision or new theme, and there are few
surprises.

Lee:

The beginning part of the film is well done and I was impressed. The father character isvery good, and from his experiences I can see the absurdity of that society. However, thestory becomes clichéd as it develops; it is overly melodramatic. The doctor character is not6very successful. You know he’s a bad guy as soon as he appears; it’s like watching a TV
drama. The subject matter is very real and shocking, but the storytelling is too melodramatic.
Chan:

Anchorage Prohibited is a very unique film. It uses visuals instead of dialogue to tell its
story, and its visuals are striking, of which most of them are long shots. The story is notcomplex, but it’s filled with details revealing the character’s emotional layers. A scene that
impressed me is one where the father takes the infant to the seaside. One can imagine that
he wants to get rid of it. His wife comes up from behind him and takes the baby away. Bysteering away from sensationalizing the scene, it allows the audience to discover andexperience the truly dramatic elements. The whole scene is expressed in film language,
which I really appreciate.

Shen:

The story is related to globalization, and the tragic fate of foreign workers who are not infull control of their own lives and what they must do to survive. It talks about a universal
problem. Secondly, its use of film language is very direct, and every shot is absolutely
essential. The film has few shots, but the messages they convey are very clear. The film
follows this couple on this particular day. They go to look for work, but see a notice in frontof the door. Without any dialogue, the film conveys their predicament. When they sit in thebus, the wife stares at her husband for a very long time. You wonder if she is angry at theworld at large. The details in the film are well thought-out, and each shot carries complex
messages. In the last shot they have their arms around one another. It is night time, and they
are back at the same spot. You see a kind of determination in their eyes, but you don’t knowwhat they have decided. The director knows fully how to use film language is, and how
much room for imagination to leave to audiences. Even though we may not know that they
are selling the baby, it does not matter, for the scene can be interpreted as the couple trying
to get money so that they and their kid can survive. This is a successful film that deals with
an important issue, using the time-span of a single day.

Lee:

I completely agree with what you said. The film is highly accurate. The two actors need nothave complex expressions, but you know full well their states of mind. Before reading thedirector’s statement, I did not know that workers can be dismissed if they have children,
but I don’t need to know this in order to understand the predicament the couple face. In thefirst scene, you don’t see the infant so you don’t know they are trying to sell the baby.
However, you see the anger in the mother’s face and how she blames her husband. Her
acting is not dramatic but very real, and makes you follow them on their journey. Their
predicament is having this baby whom they love very much; it’s not as if they want to get
rid of it. They become more and more desperate as the film progresses. In one scene, themother crouches down, and this simple shot expresses her emotional state. The theme ofthis film is a worthy one, which the storytelling method is able to support. This makes fora very touching film.

Chan:

It trusts that the audience is able to make sense of the story without any dialogue.

Fan:

The last film is Dad And The Son.
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Chan:

It is a story about a young boy. Compared with River, I like this one better. Although there
might be elements taken from Kiarostami or other films.

Lee:

Like River, this is also a nostalgic film about childhood memories, but when put together,
these memories may not make up a complete story. The plot is quite simple, and seems
infused with personal emotions. The boy sees that the lamb has died and drinks the ricewine. Then he and his father go back and forth on the road. Are they going to see a doctor?
Does he make up with his father?

Chan:

His mother’s death and his father selling the lamb make him hate his father, and at the end
they seem to make up.

Shen:

If this is the case, then the last shot is unclear. We don’t know if they have made up or havedecided not to go to the hospital. That’s why the film doesn’t leave much of an impression.

Chan:

We have discussed all 10 works. It seems that there are three or four films we agree on.

Fan:

We can nominate the Gold award winner.

Shen:

My nomination for Gold is Anchorage Prohibited.

Chan/Lee: Mine too.
Fan:

Now we can decide on the Silver.

Lee:

I nominate Wild Tides.

Chan:

I nominate Santé. They each have their own strengths, which we can discuss.

Shen:

Did you notice the flaws that I mentioned in Wild Tides? No doubt I am harsher about
Taiwanese films.

Chan:

Perhaps it’s a language issue, because I didn’t pay much notice to that.

Lee:

When you said it, I agree that some of the shots are not very smooth, but that does not affect
how the story is expressed. The film successfully conveys a simple and complete story.
Santé is my choice for Special Mention because this is an important theme that the director
expresses in a non-judgemental manner. One film expresses the state of mind of a youngboy, the other reveals a social situation in a dramatic manner. For me the storytelling ofWild Tides is more advanced and the expression more well-rounded, while Santé uses amore conventional dramatic format, so I gave it a lower mark.

Shen:

Before its last shot, I did not give Santé very high marks. Its production is more predictable
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and not very imaginative. It is important that a film allows the audience to participate in its
imagining, and in this regard, Wild Tides is superior to Santé.
Chan:

I agree to give Wild Tides the Silver Award.

Shen:

I also agree.

Fan:

Now we will consider Special Mention.

Shen:

My vote goes now to Santé.

Lee:

I thought nominating Microphone Test: A Letter to Huang Guo-Jun for Special Mention
is a way to encourage the director, but I place my vote for Santé.

Chan:

Including it in the finalist round is a form of encouragement.

Asian New Force Category
Gold Award
Anchorage Prohibited
Chiang Wei-liang
Singapore
Silver Award
Wild Tides
Lu Po-shun
TaiwanSpecial Mention
SantéSabrine Khoury
Israel9