Harbourfront Centre's Taiwan: Ilha Formosa presents a free five film retrospective

Zero Chou, heralded as one of Taiwan's most important new directors, will be given a free five film retrospective at the Taiwan: Ilha Formosa festival from Friday August 24 through Sunday August 26 (times and dates below). Screenings will include her recent offering Spider Lilies, which won the Best Gay/Lesbian Feature Film Teddy Award at the 2007 Berlin Film Festival. The film cleverly intertwines the love affair of two women with a love of tattooing and is the highest grossing local film at the Taiwanese box office so far this year. The film also features popular Taiwan singer and talk show host Rainie Yang in one of the lead roles.

Also screening is Chou's 2004 film Splendid Float (also known as Drag Queen Tao) - which follows a Taoist Taipei priest through his daily rites and through his night time drag queen transformation as Rose (who lip-synchs shows with three other drag queens on the back of their gaudily lit truck). This film won multiple Taiwan film festival Golden Horse Awards, including Best Taiwanese Film Of The Year. The retrospective also has a rare screening of Vision of Darkness.

Born in 1969, Chou studied philosophy at university and first worked as a television reporter. She left journalism for filmmaking, creating documentaries like Corners (2002) and Poles Extremity (2003) that quickly established her as a talented director. Poles Extremity was the winner of the 2003 Marseille Festival of Documentary Film for Best Documentary while Corners was the winner of the 2002 Taipei Film Festival for Best Documentary.

Zero Chou Five Film Retrospective Screening Schedule:
All screenings are free admission at the Studio Theatre
Friday, August 24
7:30 p.m. – Corners (2002 - 66 minutes)
Saturday, August 25
1 p.m. – Poles Extremity (2003 - 56 minutes)
4:30 p.m. – Splendid Float (2004 - 72 minutes)
Sunday, August 26
1 p.m. – Vision of Darkness (2005 - 49 minutes)
3:30 p.m. – Spider Lilies (2007 - 94 minutes)

For more info on Spider Lilies visit http://www.encorefilms.com/spiderlilies/ and http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/06/06/arts/fmjessop.php

Harbourfront Centre visits the vitality of current Taiwanese culture at Taiwan: Ilha Formosa (August 24 to 26). Coproduced by the Formosa Cultural Society of Ontario and the Taiwanese Canadian Cultural Society (who have run a similar festival in Vancouver annually since 1990), the second year of the Toronto festival has free family fun, stunning art exhibits, oodles of beef noodles and talent direct from Taiwan. The festival also features a ticketed concert by top Taiwan Rock icons Mayday. Tickets can be purchased by calling 416-973-4000 or online at www.harbourfrontcentre.com. All festival events are located at Harbourfront Centre (235 Queen's Quay West, Toronto). For public information please call 416-973-4000 or visit http://taiwanfest.ca/events/tcf07/toronto/

Taiwan: Ilha Formosa Media Site - http://taiwanfest.ca/events/tcf07/toronto/media.php
Harbourfront Centre Summer Media Site - http://www.harbourfrontcentre.com/wr/media/