2019年4月7日 星期日

The Paths of Imagining the Avant-garde: On Taiwan Film Experiments in the 1960s


The Taiwan Spectrum section, a part of Taiwan International Documentary Festival since 2014, aims to review and explore Taiwanese documentaries from new perspectives, supplement what these films may lack, formulate new historical perspectives, and engage in discourse with the fiction film-centred narratives of Taiwanese film history. Examples include the 2014 theme of ‘When Camera Comes in Between’, which centred on the relationship of those in front of and behind the camera, and in which five Taiwanese documentaries were selected for further discussion; and the 2016 retrospective ‘What’s the Colour for Documentary? – The 30th Anniversary of Green Team’, in which documentaries by Green Team (active 1986-1990) were subtitled in Chinese and English, and re-released and contrasted with CTS news reels.

Although the Green Team films have long been recognised for their significance, their works have never been widely disseminated after the group disbanded. During the planning stages of the 2016 TIDF, we came to the striking realisation that even with the exemplary status that Green Team enjoys, the discourse that their works seek to engage in has never gone through serious development simply because nobody could view them. Such is the disappointment that results from these works remaining unseen!

In other words: in the 2016 TIDF, we attempted to make ‘unseen’ works seen by improving their visibility and readability, and to enable these works to become known by an audience who brought with them the discourse of a new generation. This was an unforgettably wonderful experience, letting classic works cross into a new era to see the light of day again, and it was this experience that informed and encouraged us in curating this year’s Taiwan Spectrum.


前衛追索,路徑想像:關於台灣1960s的電影實驗

(為2018台灣國際紀錄片影展「台灣切片│想像式前衛:1960s的電影實驗」單元而寫)


TIDF自2014年設立「台灣切片」單元,希望透過新的觀點,回顧或爬梳台灣紀錄片,補強其不足,建立一種新史觀的可能,並與以劇情片為主流的台灣電影史對話。像2014年的主題訂為「攝影機的彼端」,以關注拍攝與被攝者關係的觀點,挑選5部台灣紀錄片進行討論;2016年則是「如果紀錄有顏色:綠色小組30年」回顧專題,為綠色小組(1986-1990)的影片謄上中、英字幕,使之再度面世,並以華視新聞影片對照播出。

雖說綠色小組早已被公認有其重要開創意義,但事實上,在他們解散之後,作品並未隨著時間而廣為流通流傳。在2016TIDF的策劃過程中,深感綠色小組雖然已被奉為經典圭臬,但當作品無管道觀賞時,也使得關於綠色小組作品的論述無法開展深化,這所謂「看不見」的缺憾竟如此巨大!

換句話說,在2016TIDF的經驗中,我們試著藉由策展,使「看不見」的作品「被看見」,提高其可讀性,成功地令作品以更好的方式,伴隨著新的時代論述被觀眾所認識,讓經典得以穿越時空、重見天日的滋味,美好得令人難忘。此經驗也連帶影響並鼓勵了本屆台灣切片的策展嘗試。

電影做為城市文化:記2017日本山形國際紀錄片影展

創立於1989年的山形國際紀錄片影展(Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival,YIDFF),是亞洲第一個以紀錄片為主的國際影展。創始者之一的傳奇導演小川紳介,當年邀請了來自亞洲各地重要的紀錄片導演共同發表宣言,奠定其走向與重要性。此後,山形影展每兩年舉辦一次,至2017年正式邁入第十五屆,而該影展也早已成為亞洲導演最嚮往的紀錄片聖地。

這是我自2005年起,連續七次參加山形影展。開幕式中的開場小短片,以歷屆影展照片構成並配上音樂,可發現自1989年起每屆影展的日期、舉辦地點、場館都相似,不只勾起參加者的回憶,也足見一個成功的影展,需要長遠的視野和穩定的經驗累積。