“The Man Who Couldn’t Leave” (??????), an award-winning virtual reality film exploring Taiwan’s White Terror period in the 1950s, bagged yet another international accolade on Saturday at France’s NewImages Festival.
The Taiwan Creative Content Agency (TAICCA) said the film took home the Special Cinematographic Distinction at the 6th edition of the festival that is taking place April 5-9.
The film’s director Singing Chen (???) said that after learning of the award she immediately contacted her production team to bring them the good news.
Chen said the project was made in honor of those who sacrificed themselves for freedom in the 1950s during the then-Kuomintang government’s suppression of political rights in Taiwan.
The honor was the film’s third festival award, after winning the VR360 award at the Kaohsiung XR Dreamland — a Taiwanese festival — and the award for best experience at the Venice Immersive, a film fest in Italy.
According to Chen, the film will soon embark on an exhibition residency at the Museum of National Taipei University of Education between May 6 and July 2.
Chen said preparing for the exhibition was not as easy as she had anticipated, and that she wanted to do her production team justice with the exhibition even though she was limited by funding and resources.
Meanwhile, the TAICCA said it partnered again with the NewImages Festival this year on the “Taiwan x France XR Days,” a bilateral exchange program aimed at cultivating talent from the two countries.
According to the festival’s official website, this was the third year in which the program has been included in the festival, and eight Taiwanese artists using XR (extended reality) as a medium were chosen to attend the celebration in France.
The TAICCA said it was also teaming up with several groups in France and Taiwan to organize the Villa Formose Immersive, an art village initiative that will seek to further strengthen collaboration between both countries in the XR industry.
The agency will partner with NewImages Festival organizer Forum des images, the National Centre of Cinematography and Animated Pictures, the French Office in Taipei and the Kaohsiung Film Archive.
Source: Focus Taiwan