Taiwan Documentary

Watched the premiere of a Taiwan Documentary on an author's book - 龙应台‘s 目送一九四九。

I've heard that the book is really good. I will read it in the future. James got a signed copy, so I guess I'll grab that off him at some point.

The documentary, in my opinion, wasn't that good. It really just tried to record the writing of the book... I understand that a documentary should be recording the facts, but I also think that it should have a point of view. With many many heart-felt moments of people who have had their lives turned up-side-down by a invasion followed by a civil war, there were plenty of opportunities to tell a story. I don't buy the director's view that "we don't want to tell you what is right or wrong; we want to present you the facts and leave you to draw your own conclusions". The whole thing was just put together with no real theme or story.

What did impress me was the amount of Mainland students who turned out for the event. They all came ready: read all the books, had all the questions, and were very well spoken during the Q&A. As the author said herself, the most important is to have a critical mind and find your own answers. I hope these students at least took that away from the premiere.

I still would encourage people to watch the documentary. It has a lot of heart-felt and touching moments. Just don't expect too much. And read the book if you can.