In 2013, the Golden Horse Film Festival celebrated its 50th anniversary. The ministry of Culture commissioned director Yang Li-chou to make a documentary about the history of Golden Horse. What is unique to this film is that it's not an ode to celebrities but about the role cinema plays in ordinary people's lives. It's a love letter to cinema, filmmakers and audiences.

With Taiwan remaining in the grip of martial law in 1982, a group of filmmakers from that country set out to establish a cultural identity through cinema and to share it with the world. This engaging documentary looks at the movement's legacy.

The life of the epoch-making master of martial arts cinema, King Hu.

In 2014, Tsai Ming-Liang was invited to make a film for the MarseilleFID, Marseille International Film Festival. Since he was not familiar with Marseille, he decided to make a film as tourist, capturing the beautiful Mediterranean sunshine in the late summer of that year. He also invited famous French actor, Denis Lavant, to appear alongside Lee Kang-Sheng playing Xuanzang. "Journey to the West" was invited to be the opening short film at the Berlin International Film Festival the same year.

Dancer SHEU Fang-yi’s career has been told through her modern dance dramas such as Sparrow, Stranger, Wall, and Martha GRAHAM‘s Heretic. Martha GRAHAM once said: “A dancer dies twice — once when they stop dancing, and this first death is the more painful.” At this intersection of her life, SHEU Fang-yi commemorates her glorious past two decades with a funeral, to farewell her past self, and to get ready to move toward her unknown future.

CHEN Ming-chang, exposed to Western music, from The Beatles to Bob Dylan, often taught himself to play and sing with a guitar when he was young. In the closed social milieu of martial law in Taiwan, he became immersed in music and yearned for freedom, arousing his desire to become a musician. Later, he decided to set out on a journey to learn more about the music that has been passed down through generations. Traveling around Taiwan, he learns traditional opera music from prestigious musicians and integrates it into his artistic creations, composing music and stories that belong to Taiwan…

In 2015, Tsai Ming-Liang was once again invited by the Hong Kong International Film Festival to make the opening short film. This time, he selected Shibuya station in Tokyo as his main filming location and invited the famous Japanese actor Masanobu Ando to appear alongside Lee Kang-Sheng. They sleep separately at a capsule hotel and cleanse themselves at a public bath. Their fatigued bodies yearn for sleep but restless minds keep them for falling asleep. "No No Sleep" won the Best Director Award at the Taipei Film Festival.

To commemorate the 70th anniversary of the victory of WWII, this documentary film describes the eight years of dauntless air-force fighting of the republic of China during the Anti-Japanese War, with only 300 combat-capable aircraft from China while Japan had over 2000.

In 2012, the Hong Kong International Film Festival invited Tsai Ming-Ling to make the opening short film. Having grown up with Hong Kong's popular culture, Tsai Ming-Liang decided to pay homage by making a "Walker" film, contrasting the Walker's slowness with the frenzied pace of Hong Kong's cosmopolitan life. The film ends with a song by Hong Kong actor and singer Samuel Hui, who was Tsai Ming-Liang's idol during his youth. The film was invited to be the closing short film for the Cannes Film Festival in 2012.

Richly illustrated with film clips and interviews, OUR TIME, OUR STORY tells the still-evolving story of the Taiwanese "new wave," from its rise in the early 1980s, as the island was democratizing after decades under martial law, through growing international recognition and domestic debate in the 1990s. Spearheaded in its early years by such filmmakers as Edward Yang, Ko I-cheng, Hou Hsiao-hsien and Wan Jen, the movement revitalized Taiwan cinema through low-budget experiments that emphasized personal stories, political reflection and stylistic invention. Said filmmakers, writers and actors like Wu Nien-jen and Sylvia Chang, even "second wave" directors Tsai Ming-liang and Lin Cheng-sheng provide fond reminiscences and retrospective insights in this compelling account of one of the most distinctive national cinemas of the last quarter-century.

Making-of documentary for Kong Dashan's 2021 film "Journey to the West".

Documenting Taiwan from an aerial perspective offering a glimpse of Taiwan's natural beauty as well as the effect of human activities and urbanization on our environment.

Focusing on Mark Lee Ping-bin, one of the most talented and prolific cinematographers in Asia, the movie details the itinerant lifestyle of a deeply observant and philosophical artist and the tolls that his profession takes on his family life.

The original subject intended for this film was a spiritual medium who was unbelievably accurate. Tsai Ming-liang jumped on his 50cc motorbike, equipped with a DV camera ready to shoot her, to see whether the god would speak to his camera. But on the way, he was caught in a traffic jam of people gathered at another god’s festival. A man in a trance, flashy karaoke girls on stage, a power black-out. During his diversion, the camera discovers fish and underground passages

Chu Tien-Wen, frequent screenwriter for Hou Hsiao-Hsien, makes her directorial debut with this entry in The Inspired Island documentary series. With Hou as producer, cinematographer Yao Hung-I and editor Liao ChingSung, Chu takes a deep dive into the story of her parents, famed authors Chu Hsi-Ning and Liu Mu-Sha. Through family albums, old letters and interviews with fellow writers, Chu crafts a deeply personal portrait of her parents’ romance, literary careers, family roots and the unfinished opus her father left behind.

In 2013, Tsai Ming-Liang was invited by Malaysian filmmaker Tan Chui Mui to make a short film for an anthology film, "Letters from the South". Tsai Ming-Liang returned to his hometown in Kuching, Malaysia and made a "Walker" film at his childhood home, "Walking on Water". The seven-storey flat which contained the happy memories of his childhood is now occupied by strangers. His old neighbour, an older girl who used to bathe and feed him when he was a child, has also grown old.

A continuation of Tsai Ming-Liang's Walker series, featuring Lee Kang-Sheng as a barefoot monk who walks very slowly.

The documentary "Taiwan Alishan Forest Railway Journey" offers a diverse array of content, with every detail highlighting the distinct features of Alishan in Taiwan. It includes many impressive elements. In addition to employing the latest filming techniques, the team captured stunning landscapes and remarkable railway construction methods, such as the figure-eight design, Z-segments, horseshoe bends, and the restoration of a century-old steam locomotive. They even filmed the domestically produced cypress train, named Formosensis, which has yet to enter service. Both Japan’s NHK and Taiwan’s Public Television Service provided their award-winning teams and enlisted the participation of renowned Japanese composer Kiyoshi Yoshida and Golden Horse Award-winning actress Gwei Lun-mei for the Chinese narration, enhancing the documentary’s international appeal.

The rural Taiwanese outer islands of Kinmen sit merely 2 miles off the coast of China. Kinmen attracts tourists for its remains from the 1949 Chinese Civil War. It also marks the frontline for Taiwan in its escalating tension with China.

This is a touching documentary film about some elderly people who suffer from dementia, and their families.

Jackie Chan and Arthur Huang are on a mission to test the Trashpresso, the world's first fully mobile plastics recycling machine, in the harshest environment of the Tibetan Plateau.

During the soft lockdown, many people once again got back in touch with their lives: a girl shot videos everyday to share with the woman who was to be her mother, a father who finally has time for his cat, a teenager who has to graduate through videoconferencing, an individual quarantining alone at home, and a director whose new film was put on hold. Everyone grows and adapts to the new normal, and subsequently bids farewell to their old life.

A sleeping city, streets without people. A figure in a red robe walks slowly — across a carpet of leaves, over cobblestones, along the cold pavement. Autumn night fog descends upon the city. In the cinema, people watch the monk’s slow steps and fall asleep. Can phantoms meet and understand each other? Night Journey was created in just ten days through a collaboration between Tsai Ming-liang and FAMU students — a tribute to cinema and to Jihlava as a place of silent dreaming.

In the 1970s, Taiwan's first grand cabaret, The Sapphire, opened in Kaohsiung, igniting a golden decade of live entertainment. Beneath its dazzling lights, the nation's tensions and censorship faded in nights of glitz and song.Stars like Teresa Teng, Fei Yu-ching and Fong Fei-fei graced. its stage, where glamour met gambling, drugs, and danger.Half a century later, The Sapphire is resurrected—through AI and music—to relive its untamed brilliance.

This documentary tracks three elderly women from Taiwan, China and the US who are drawn together by the bound they develop with inmates of a maximum-security prison in New York.

The documentary takes us on a journey to Sinje`s hometown of Alor Setar where she grew up with a strong sense of freedom in nature that shaped her into a fearless and positive person. Sinje reflects on the importance of childhood freedom and how it impacts character and outlook on life. Sinje shares her experiences of living fearlessly and embracing her passions as a modern working mother of three. Through her story, we explore the joys and challenges of motherhood, finding the balance between career and family, and prioritising self-care.

The walker with the shaved head and dressed in a red robe is barefoot. He walks slowly but determinedly through the forest, over stones and grassland. He also makes his way through the shadows of trees and houses. He sets foot in the train station, the church and the museum. The sun rises and sets again. The walker passes through Washington, D.C. Another stranger is also on the move in the city. We are unsure whether or not he is following the walker.

Principal Audrey of Hilltop, a kindergarten in Kuala Lumpur, shares the concept of Waldorf education and the extended teaching model that aims to inspire each child`s unique capacities, providing them a space to be creative and have fun - and letting children enjoy exploring with nature, freestyle and non-instructional play through their learning processes.

Composed of a series of portrait shots of mostly anonymous individuals, filmmaker Tsai Ming-liang's digital experiment turns the human face into a subject of dramatic intrigue.

On the Train captures from the birth to the last moment of the railway, 98.2 kilometers long and opened in 1992, crossing southern Taiwan.

“I Remember” tells the story of sister writers Chu Tien-wen and Chu Tien-xin, from co-founding the San-san magazine to their respective creative and political efforts up to the present.

Raye’s devastating documentary follows the plight of some 450 dogs brought through a single animal shelter during the winter of 2013. Policy dictates that any animal not adopted within 12 nights will be destroyed. Only around 10% of residents will be so lucky as to survive. As they wait, their time in the shelter is fraught with anguish, disease, and only the slimmest possibility of a better life. Executive produced by novelist and filmmaker Giddens Ko (You Are The Apple Of My Eye).

Actor & Singer Richie Ren personally produce, direct, and starred in this documentary, to showcase the eventful annual nine days Mazu Procession.

In June, 1993 , the gravestone of Hsu Ching-Lan was finally found in Liuchangli by his brother after 40 years of searching. Hsu was killed by the KMT during the 'White Terror,' the organized suppression of leftist activities in Taiwan in the 1950s.

Poetry, literature, painting and old film clips converge in this lyrical, unusually designed film essay about Le Moulin, the Taiwanese poets’ collective which protested in the 1930s against the cultural superiority of the Japanese occupier and the domination of realism in poetry.

Short film by Yi-wen Chen.

A documentary on the history of film studios in Taiwan.

The essence of progress in civilization has always been handiwork. In traditional Chinese civilization, the emperor was supreme. Vested with the authority to enjoy the best of handiwork, all crafts used for residence, clothing, food, and travel were the most refined and splendid.

In Taipei’s dreamscape, Tao’s incomprehensible love for Shin drives her to create painful memories. Meanwhile, Melih, burdened with self-blame, longs to connect with the perpetually drunk Ping.

Hero! Hito! tells the true story of Chinese Taipei, the team that represents Taiwan in international baseball competitions, and their eleven-year climb from the heartbreak of the 2013 World Baseball Classic to a world championship win. With powerful tournament footage and candid player interviews, the film shows how an underestimated team overcame doubts, pressure, and tough odds to defeat Japan and unite fans in a moment of unforgettable pride. A heartfelt and uplifting documentary from director Lungnan Isak Fangas.

"Homeschooling" was originally popular in the United States and other Western countries as a way for parents to manage their children`s education at home. Its flexibility promotes the growth of children to become very individualised. Two families with different backgrounds share about their homeschooling journey.

In this documentary, director Tang records his own son's birth and growing up, his father's recovering from a stroke and a nostalgic trip home to China. (In the 1940's his father evacuated with the Nationalist troops to Taiwan after it lost the Mainland to the Communist in the war. It wasn't until 1980's were people allowed to go home to visit in Mainland China). From his search for the earliest memory of life, with a close observation and sensitivity, he exams the parallels of the different lives of a different time. In his previous work, "HOW DEEP IS THE OCEAN," director Tang ends it with the ultrasound image of his unborn child, representing the beginning of a new life. With this work, "HOW HIGH IS THE MOUNTAIN," it is rather a beginning of a series of questions about life and a continuation of examination of his own life and the longing of a perfect world.

In 2011, Tsai Ming-Liang staged a play, "Only You", for Taiwan's National Theater and Concert Hall. In it, there was a powerfully moving scene where monk Xuanzang walked at an extremely slow pace for half an hour. Lamenting the transient nature of theater, Tsai decided to make a movie out of this slow-walking performance, "No Form", the first of his "Walker Films" series.

The ninth opus of his Walker Films series, which was shot at Centre Pompidou.

Taiwanese documentary about the life of Tao, a Lanyu tribesman and how the director's life and relationship has grown and changed.

80 years ago, Seediq people living in the mountains of Taiwan organized an uprising against the Japanese colonial rulers: the rebellion known as the "Wushe Incident". In this documentary, the descendants of the Wushe survivors talk about that history from their point of view, and lead us to the places where the tragedies took place.

Teachers and parents play important roles in children educational processes. The documentary explores and features the perspective from three different education systems and a career-oriented mother, and the different insights to education philosophies. Parents and educators need to find a balance and educate the next generation in a better way.

Between 1979 and 1983, 117 violent and gritty social realist pictures were produced in Taiwan. Many of these found their way around the world courtesy of Hong Kong's IFD films.

The fate of the three coral atolls in northern Taiwan was decided by the migration history of the humans. A land does not always require human explanations to give it a meaning. "Silent Delta" is a film based on the testimonies of nature. A beached ocean-liner on Pinnacle Island; a lone goat who has lived on Cotton Island for five years; and on Peng-Jia Island, an apparition of a Japanese soldier, left behind from the times of the Japanese invasion. We come to the islands and devour these scenes with our cameras... Wandering between these three islands, we become a part of this silent ghostly landscape.

In 2018, Tsai Ming-Liang was invited by the Northeast and Yilan Coast National Scenic Area Administration to make this film, his eighth in the "Walker" series. In the constant passage of time, the Zen-like footsteps of the Walker has finally allowed us to see the Pacific Ocean, the open sky, the seagulls, the black sand, an eel catching settlement that arose in the cold winter rain, the twisting branches of the lintou trees, flotsam piled up like mountains, and a newly constructed cement house, which seems to offer a temporary place of rest for the Walker. "Sand" premiered together with the opening of the Zhuangwei Dune Visitor Center.

In Taiwan, there is a group of people participating in this race against time. They are hidden inside the film archive of New Taipei City’s “Singapore Industrial Park”, where the 17,000-plus film reels and over a million film artifacts have become their spiritual nourishment. Day after day, they shuttle back and forth inside, carrying their doubts, their learnings, and their faith. What they are doing is awakening these long-neglected film reels, then piecing together the no-longer-existent social atmospheres and lives of distant pasts recorded on them. And spending time in this archive has become everyday life for these film archivists and restorers.

"Is cancer a gift?" This unsettling question drives Bowie TSANG, a well-known TV host and speaker active in Taiwan, Hong Kong, and China, on a six-year journey of exploration. Since 2018, as cancer impacted her loved ones and even her trusted doctor, Bowie sought answers on how to face the disease. Through her Vlog, she documented inspiring stories, exploring not only conventional Western treatments but also alternative therapies such as traditional Chinese medicine, integrative mind-body practices, and more. Along the way, Bowie discovered a profound perspective—gaining peace through a "medicine for the mind." Her journey invites viewers to rethink the connection between life, illness, and healing.

A documentary on King Hu.

The title of the François Lunel film is the Buddhist proverb concluding by: "all is but illusion". His movie draws the Tsai Ming-Liang's face during the shooting of his movie Visage, which itself is also a movie within a movie.