With the great sponsorship of the TAIWAN FILM & AUDIOVISUAL INSTITUTE and TAIWAN DOCS (Taiwan documentary overseas promotion project), and the support of the Taiwan Ministry of Culture and the Taipei Representative Office in Germany, we are excited to announce the 1st Taiwan Film Festival Berlin Documentaries: Professions will launch on the 26th April 2024 at Kino Central Berlin.

This spring the Impression Taiwan e.V will hold its first Documentary Film Festival. Under the theme “Professions,“ we aim to bring an audiovisual record of Taiwan's history of industrial development to the international stage. Together with TAIWAN DOCS nine long-form and four short-form documentaries have been carefully selected and will be shown for the first time in Berlin. The Screenings include a special selection from the series "The Portrait of Hundred Occupations“ (1986-1991), which was prominently featured in the 2022 edition of the Taiwan International Documentary Film Festival.

The workshop starts from the facilitator guides us through various exercises in relation to the everyday life, standing, walking, breathing and the postures.

This year, in response to the Ukraine war, reflections on various natural and man-made disasters, we would like to introduce the theme for 2023, Home, Wherever. Whether influenced by the waves of globalization or the wrath of natural and man-made disasters, human migration has become the new norm. As we all know, Germany is the second biggest immigration country in the world. The Ukraine war has brought vast numbers of refugees to Germany, and Berlin has taken the greatest numbers. As such impacts on society are apparent in people’s daily lives, the issue of home has been brought to the forefront of many people's minds. In the midst of departures and returns, the issue of "home" emerges, prompting us to ponder its meaning.

By presenting the rich tapestry of family dynamics and diverse narratives of family life across different cultures in Taiwan, we aspire to provide new possibilities and a sense of support for those in search of a place to call home.

Speaker: Jung Lin

Speaker: Karen Cheung

With the support and sponsorship from the Ministry of Culture as well as the Taipei Representative Office in Germany, we are delighted to announce the 5th Taiwanese Film Festival in Berlin, organized by Impression Taiwan and cooperated with Taiwan Film and Audiovisual Institute and Friedrich-Naumann-Stiftung für die Freiheit. The 2022 festival will return to physical edition and in these ten days, it will be delivering 12 works on three diverse themes, including both short films and feature-length films.

Established in 2017, the Taiwan Film Festival Berlin is the largest scale event in Europe for Taiwanese art and culture. The 2022 festival is centered around the theme of ‘Island Fantasia’ and challenges the audience’s imagination with our diverse programme and hence, creates a unique and personal filmic experience.

For this year’s festival, “Nina Wu” and “Dear Tenant” have been selected to discuss developments of the global #MeToo movement in Asia.

Speaker: Film critic Maja Korbecka with Festival Programmer Shengta Chiu

Speaker: Independent curator Karen Cheung and Festival Curator Jaye Lin

Speaker: Ralf Fröhlich (LGBTI Liberals of Europe and LiSL) and Ulli Pridat (Board member of CSD Berlin) with curator Jaye

With the support and sponsorship from the Ministry of Culture as well as the Taipei Representative Office in Germany, the 4th Taiwan Film Festival Berlin will be hosted between 20 and 29 August, screening a total of 16 film works divided into four sub-categories. Among them, ‘Living the Mountain and the Sea’ is the opening and closing theme which starts with Whale Island, and finishes with a documentary Searching for Taromak: Land of Warriors and an animated short film Taromak Eco-logy and Millet-ology. Through rich and exquisite images of the inherent diversity in the mountain forests, this sub-category describes the interactions between Taiwanese people and nature and thus provides a fresh perspective for our European audience to experience Taiwan.

Our central theme for this year’s Taiwan Film Festival Berlin is ‘Portraits of Taiwanese Diversity’ which aims to present a variety of life philosophies and cultural outlooks- from the coast to the plain, from high mountains to the distant islands- where Taiwanese people live and think.

The Fantasy of the Deer Warrior (1961)大俠梅花鹿

The 3rd Taiwan Film Festival in Berlin is headed online this August amid the COVID-19 crisis. Featuring documentaries, fiction and other genres, our virtual screening of 9 films from August 21st to 30th covers a wide range of subjects: from Taiwanese indigenous wildlife, contemporary homosexual issues, to unique genres of martial arts. “[The online screening] shows how perseverant Taiwanese people are. While many independent film festivals choose to cancel due to the pandemic, we still launch this festival as planned, so that people in Germany can enjoy brilliant Taiwanese movies,” states Impression Taiwan, the organizer of this festival.

Kevin Chen in interview with director Lucie Liu

Ambassador Dr. Shieh in conversation with Curator Jaye

The theme of Taiwan Film Festival Berlin this year is “conversation”. What makes Taiwan special and precious is the open-mindedness of islander, colonized background and constitution of various ethnic origins. From ceaseless conversations, we accept different cultures, groups and perspectives, tolerating and integrating them into the building blocks of Taiwanese culture. We thus choose to return to the basic human relationship of “conversation”as the inspiration of the key visual of the festival. Boldly giving up the so-called “Taiwan image” of the totem 2 design used often in cultural events, we in this case aim to get rid of positions, hierarchies. The design of different sound waves is used to demonstrate voices of different ethnic groups and their interaction. Further, it tries to listen to divergent voices and explore more issues, inspiring more thoughts and possibilities. Once there is the starting point, there is the key to the real conversation, and this is what Taiwan Film Festival Berlin aims to achieve.

The First Taiwan Film & Documentary Festival, is one of the platforms in Berlin for Taiwan movies. We are looking for innovative films with unique points of views which are relevant to social and human interests.