2022 Boston Taiwan Film Festival

The album “The Future” by Leonard Cohen and released in 1992 featured a song “Anthem”. Its lyrics reflected the peaks and troughs brought by the global events at that time, including the collapse of the Soviet Union, the fall of the Berlin wall and the massacre at the Tiananmen Square. Yet, the generation at that time still found hope. The way to find light is through the cracks.  “Crack” signifies the imperfections in life. In the realms of personal achievements, family relationships, career, religion, politics and country, it’s never easy to reach a perfect state or answer. “Crack” could be the distance between two objects attempting to connect or the interactivity in between psychological layers. Alternatively, “Crack” can also be the necessary buffer zone in a structure.  However, when light enters the space, “Crack” is no longer a negative state. “Crack” may be part of the glaze on pottery, caused by the unevenness of material contraction on the surface. It may be the byproduct of the tea leafhopper releasing the honey-like sweetness on Oriental Beauty tea leaves. It may be the sanctuary for animals, fungi and mosses created by the shadows of the forest. It may also be the shining beam of light that breaks through storming clouds. The imperfection of the “Crack” created the “Uniqueness” of each beam of light.

The theme of TFFB 2022 is “Crack & Light”. We are sincerely inviting you to join us in enjoying movies and sharing the shadows and lights throughout our individual journeys. Perhaps it was a moment of remorse that gave us the endless power to move on. Perhaps it was a setback that inspired us to never let go. What does it take for us to see the bright light at the end of the tunnel? What kind of imperfection makes lives unique and complete?

The theme “Crack & Light” also conveys all our rediscoveries during the pandemic. Little did we notice how the lack of human activities gave the nature an opportunity to restore, how precious are the bonds between our families and communities, how many possibilities can remote working create, and how challenging may solitude be. On the other side of the era of the pandemic, we further cherish each other and the hard-fought reunion. Just like the “Crack” that is filled with “Light”, this shall always be a unique memory shared amongst our generation.

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