Archive for September 18th, 2009

Friday, September 18, 2009

Kaohsiung Film Festival: “Too Sensitive”

“We selected the Kadeer film because it fits one of this year’s themes — ‘people power.’ Our goal is to promote arts and culture, we hope people will not view the choice from a political angle.”

Liu Hsiu-ying (劉秀英), Kaohsiung Film Festival organizer, on selecting The Ten Conditions of Love, quoted by the Taipei Times on September 6

“I hereby urge the city government to cancel the plan to screen the documentary, as it is too sensitive and could harm cross-strait relations.”

Tseng Fu-hsing (曾福興), Kaohsiung Tourism Association chairman, quoted by the same paper on Friday.

City Government Secretary-General Hau Chien-sheng (郝建生) told reporters the city’s Information Office would review the plan, adding that the city government had not been informed of the inclusion of the documentary before the festival organizers unveiled the list of films for the Oct. 16 to Oct. 29 event.

Taipei Times, September 18

According to Radio Taiwan International (September 17), Kaoshiung’s city government said that the organization of the Film Festival had been assigned to private companies, and that it therefore hadn’t been aware of the planned screening of the documentary movie on Rebiya Kadeer.