The Chief of Yancheng District

Racing down the tracks on a train, the filmmaker snaps a series of photos of homes through the window. A year later, he returns to the homes to ask the residents what they recall doing at the moment the photos were taken to create a powerful meditation on memory, time and place. (2018, dir. Huang Pang-chuan, DCP, color, 15 min.)

The story behind one of Taiwan’s most notorious, innuendo-laden pop songs (first released in 1964 and promptly banned for being “harmful to good morals”) provides the leaping-off point for director Adion Lu’s deep dive into the colorful local history of Yancheng, a major port city where pop culture, political corruption, organized crime, and Cold War imperialism all come together in this ever-surprising, completely fascinating documentary. (2018, dir. Adion Lu, DCP, color, 51 min.)