After sessions with Danish auteur Lars von Trier and French Filmmaker Cédric Klapisch and Actor Romain Duris, Third Installment of Ongoing Program Presents An Evening with the Acclaimed Taiwanese Director of THREE TIMES, Moderated by Critic Charles Taylor
IFC Center presents the third installment of its ongoing "iQ&A" series, a program of live on-screen discussions with international filmmakers, Friday, June 2 with THREE TIMES filmmaker Hou Hsiao-Hsien. Live from Taiwan, Hou will be connected to the audience at IFC Center in Greenwich Village via Macs and iChat to hold a virtual discussion Friday following the 6:45 show. The evening will be moderated by film and pop culture critic Charles Taylor, who will interview the filmmaker before opening the floor to audience members' questions.
An ongoing program, "IFC Center iQ&A's" bring international filmmakers together with New York audiences, in real time, via Apple's innovative videoconferencing software, iChat AV. Through a simple high-speed internet connection and two of Apple's iSight cameras, a moderator onstage at the IFC Center in the Village and a filmmaker half a world away hold a live conversation, with the video of their chat projected onto the theater's screen and with moviegoers free to pose questions directly to the filmmaker. The series was inaugurated with Danish filmmaker Lars von Trier in January, making his first-and, for the foreseeable future, his only-'visit' ever to the U.S., to discuss his work with standing-room-only crowds at the IFC Center. RUSSIAN DOLLS filmmaker Cédric Klapisch and star Romain Duris have also participated in the program. Continuing its role as an innovator in exhibition (IFC Center is the only theater that plays short films before every feature), IFC Center sees the iQ&A series as an important tool in its mission to offer audiences dynamic, unique moviegoing experiences that push beyond the boundaries of standard film fare.
Born in 1947 in Guangdong Province, China, Hou Hsiao-hsien moved with his family to Taiwan the following year. After graduating from the Film and Performing Arts Department of National Taiwan Arts Academy in 1972, he became one of the leading lights of the "Taiwanese New Wave." He gained international attention in 1985 when his A TIME TO LIVE AND A TIME TO DIE won the FIPRESCI Award at the Berlin International Film Festival. CITY OF SADNESS, the first of Hou's so-called modern Taiwan trilogy, was awarded the Golden Lion at the 1989 Venice Film Festival; the second part, THE PUPPETMASTER, won the Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival. Hou's subsequent films GOOD MEN, GOOD WOMEN; GOODBYE SOUTH, GOODBYE; FLOWERS OF SHANGHAI and MILLENIUM MAMBO were all selected for competition at Cannes, with the latter winning the Jury prize. THREE TIMES, Hou's latest, also had its debut at Cannes; telling three love stories, set in three different periods but played by the same two leads-Shu Qi and Chang Chen-the film was hailed as "a masterpiece" by A.O. Scott of the New York Times.
Charles Taylor's writing on movies, books, pop music, and politics has appeared in Salon, the New York Times, the New Yorker, the New York Observer, Newsday, Sight and Sound, GQ, Film Comment, and other publications. He is a member of the National Society of Film Critics and currently writes "High and Low," a pop culture column in The Star-Ledger.