Cosponsored by the San Francisco Asian American Film FestivalPropelled by newfound freedoms since the lifting of martial law in 1987, Taiwanese documentary makers have vigorously reinvented their medium in inspired breakthroughs, both stylistic and intellectual. They have taken as their subjects unprecedented social and political changes in Taiwan's accelerated democratizing process. Their efforts have captured the vitality and chaos of today's Taiwan, exposing its contradictions and conflicts. As independent documentary makers managed to break down the state monopoly over the control of media, documentaries became, in many ways, weapons of the weak and the marginalized against the dominant forces in the society. They also extended into more private domains to voice the inner impulses of the self, the family, and the community. By 1996, the expansion and impact of this multifaceted documentary movement became evident, and was formally marked by the establishment of the first Institute of Documentary Studies in Taiwan. Crossing Waves: Documenting Taiwan in the 1990s is curated by Daw-Ming Lee and YiLing Mao, and organized by the Chinese Taipei Film Archive. The series is sponsored by the Council for Cultural Affairs, Executive Yuan, R.O.C. Program Notes by Daw-Ming Lee and YiLing MaoThursday March 11, 1999
