Home: Leave and Return
The Second Transnational Asian Film Festival (TAFF) features three recent films from Taiwan, Bhutan, and Vietnam that together ask how people leave and return home to reconnect, reform, and reconcile. From a Taiwanese working class family involved in pigeon racing in Chan Ching-lin’s Coo-Coo 043 (2022), to a village affected by Bhutan’s democratization in Pawo Choyning Dorij’s The Monk and the Gun (2023), and then to a Vietnamese Catholic funeral ritual in Phạm Thiên Ân’s Inside the Yellow Cocoon Shell (2023), we see how Asian cultures build their home with laughter, tears, and wonder. The Transnational Asian Film Festival is sponsored by the Williams College Department of Asian Languages, Literatures, and Cultures; the Asian Studies Program; Center for Global Languages, Literatures, and Cultures; and the Education Division, Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Boston.Coo-Coo 043
(2022)
Monday, March 4 at 7pm
A pigeon returns after seven years, reopening family wounds and festering resentments in a town that's part of the illegal pigeon racing circuit.
Thursday, March 7 at 7pm
The Monk And The Gun captures the wonder and disruption as Bhutan becomes one of the world's youngest democracies. Known throughout the world for its extraordinary beauty and its emphasis on Gross National Happiness, the remote Himalayan Kingdom of Bhutan was the last nation to connect to the internet and television. And if that weren't enough change, the King announced shortly afterwards that he would cede his power to the people via their vote and a new form of government: Democracy.
Inside the Yellow Cocoon Shell
(2024)
Saturday, March 9 at 7pm
After his sister-in-law dies in a freak accident in Saigon, Vietnam, Thien must deliver her body back to their countryside hometown. He's accompanied by his 5-year-old nephew Dao, who miraculously survived the crash. Thien searches for his older brother in the mystical landscapes of rural Vietnam.
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