some film festivals are coming to the taipei film spot that look quite good. first up is the ocean-ville festival. one of my favourite films - cyclo - is playing. quite a few of the films have english subs too. then from august 12th to the 26th is a festival called music in taiwan and mandarin films: a companionship. it looks like they haven't put up the scheldule on line yet(at least if it is i can't find it), but i picked up the poster(poorly pictured above) which contains the scheldule on the back. and it looks like quite a few of the films have english subs. sadly most of the newer films have no english subs.

after i picked up the scheldules for these festivals, i stepped outside and got out my camera to take a picture. someone from behind the ticket counter came out and told me you can't take pictures. i wasn't even inside the building. i asked him why but didn't quite understand his explanation. seems ridiculous that a place that has hosted photography exhibits in the past wouldn't want you to take pictures just outside their building. i often see people taking pictures out there, so i really don't see what the big deal was. but as it is, he was too late and i'd already snapped my shot.

anyway, to continue with the film theme of this post - there's a series of books coming out on the history of taiwanese cinema. of course there's no mention as to whether the books will be in english or not. it sounds like something i'd definately want to pick up if they were in english.

oh, and it looks like there'll be an asian lesbian film and video film festival next month. the english portion of the webpage seems in need of updating, but there's a scheldule here in chinese.