Beyond the Arctic

A disturbing close portrait of a young man who, like all other men in Taiwan, must enlist in the army. Dreaming of saving enough money to enter an Australian art college after having been discharged, he is gradually crushed by the corruption, the verbal violence, and the hypocrisy that festers in the military hierarchy.

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

Having spent over a year in the town of Jiasian in Kaohsiung to shoot this documentary, Golden Horse award-winning director Yang Li Chou (The Long Goodbye, Young at Heart) puts together an inspirational post-catastrophe documentary with Bridge Over Troubled Water. Capturing the emotional journey of children through a national tug-of-war tournament and the hard lives of foreign brides in the region, the documentary tells of the determination and bravery shown by the survivors of a calamitous typhoon that struck Taiwan in 2009. A group of young children volunteer to take part in a nationwide competition in order to restore hope in their town, while a large number of foreign mothers in the area hope to revive the land that they love through exotic cuisine.

Lingtan Street is home to several shops, where the owners keep their secrets. A woman who has lost her family, a lesbian running a bookshop, a vegetable stall owner controlled by her husband, a piano teacher relying on a cleaning job, a young mother separated from her son and a music store owner about to have a home birth. Their lives become entwined as they go through the highs and lows together.

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.

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.

A documentary short about a B&B owner with right hand cut off.

If you are a woman who wants to have children, you are not allowed to have any assisted reproductive treatments in Taiwan unless you are married to a man. In 2019, Mota and City “were allowed” to become each other’s wives but they are still “not allowed” to have children. Despite the fact, they refuse to bow down to the law and have found a route not regulated by any laws just to fulfill their longing to become mothers.

A documentary short about a founder of a sanctuary for southeast Asian immagrant workers' babies.

Can both your parents with mental disorders affect you being a teacher?

The film explores Lin Hai-yin’s unique perspective of having “two homelands,” narrated by her daughter Julie Chang. It highlights her life, work as an editor, and her role in overcoming censorship. Lin Hai-yin’s novels, known for their inclusiveness, remain a shared memory for cross-strait readers. She was a friend to writers and a courageous mother, nurturing Taiwanese literature post-war. As editor of the United Daily News, she supported writers like Lin Hwai-min and founded the Belles-Lettres Publishing House. Her living room was a literary hub, and she is fondly remembered as “Ms. Lin Hai-yin.” Her novel Memories of Peking: South Side Stories was published in 1960.