Taiwan Docs

This documentary is made by directors from both sides of the Taiwan Strait and jointly tells the story of an era. One of them portrays Taiwan’s “military dependents’ villages” and the other documents the “third-front factories” in Henan Province, China. When the two directors exchanged their settings and close their eyes, they couldn’t tell where they were by the sounds and smells around them!

Initially, when we decided to base our film on such a subject, we only wanted to keep a record of how we grew up. Especially for HUO Ning, many of his relatives and friends are still living in the factories. We tend to reminisce the past as we grow older. He started to document what was about to be forgotten, and I know that the military dependents’ villages in Taiwan are going to be a page in the history too. When people are just getting aware of something, it is already too late…

As we start to combine our footages, we found many coincidences. Our protagonists have similar backgrounds and experienced the same kind of relocation and difficulties in communication. They lived their lives in the shadow of war and were forced to leave their “hometowns” for unfamiliar places. Eventually, they built another home, raised their children there and settled down.

We tried to blur the lines between the two sides of Taiwan Strait and make “ambiguity” the spirit of this film. After all, there are too many coincidences and historical burdens in these stories. We’ll never be able to look into them even if we want to.