Taiwan's Eco Awareness: Taiwan Ecological and Environmental Documentary Film Series

In order to promote environmental protection and ecological awareness, the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in New York (TECO-NY) will hold a film series featuring six new ecological and environmental documentaries from Taiwan from June 1st-22nd, 2012.

These films highlight some recent initiatives in Taiwan towards making a more sustainable and environmentally friendly society. Megastructures: EcoARK (6/1 18:30 p.m.), produced in cooperation with National Geographic Channels, chronicles the construction of the spectacular green exposition hall for the 2011 Taipei International Floral Expo using 1.5 million recycled PET bottles. The project was among 12 finalists for the Wall Street Journal's 2011 Asia Innovation Awards. Trash to Treasure and Super Solar Yacht (6/8 18:30 p.m.), both also co-produced with National Geographic Channels, depict how discarded materials are transformed into valuable products, and how Taiwan produced the first solar powered luxury yacht. Birds Without Borders (6/15 18:30 p.m.), which won the Earth Vision Tokyo Global Environmental Film Festival's Special Prize for Biodiversity and the WorldFest Houston International Film Festival's Gold Remi award, chronicles the migration of the endangered black-faced spoonbill and the efforts of a group of scientists and conservationists to protect their natural habitat. Eco Taiwan: Building Magic and Species Wars (6/22 18:30 p.m.), two films produced in cooperation with the Discovery Channel, show how innovative and passionate individuals in Taiwan have committed themselves to designing inexpensive, low-tech, low emission buildings and to protecting endangered species. Attached, please find a detailed synopses and screening schedule for all of the quality films in the series.

Drawings to win recycled products designed and made in Taiwan will be held after each screening. Audience members can win slick iPhone cases and elegant wine carriers! Prizes will also include five one-year subscriptions to Taiwan's reputable bilingual publication, Panorama Magazine. Moreover, unique eco-friendly shopping bags made in Taiwan will be given to the first 15 attendees at each screening.

All screenings are free and open to the public. Refreshments will be served. Registration is recommend no later than two days before each screening by emailing klin@taipei.org. Join us to help protect the environment!

Synopses

Megastructures: EcoArk
Year: 2011
Length: 60 mins
Director: Mike Bennett
June 1, 18:30 pm

Turning Taiwan’s trash into a treasure. The EcoARK pavilion is hailed as a new benchmark for the future of green buildings and a spectacular showpiece for the 2011 Taipei International Flora Expo. Adhering to the mantra of “Reduce, Reuse and Recycle,” the nine-story high EcoARK pavilion is built largely out of recycled polyethylene terephthalate, or PET, bottles. It weighs 50 percent less than a conventional building, yet is strong enough to withstand the forces of nature, including fire!

Trash to Treasure
Year: 2011
Length: 45 mins
Director: Yu-hsu Tsai
June 8, 18:30 pm

In Taiwan, a revolution begins. Not a political revolution. It's a fight for survival. The Enemy – Trash. It threatens to overwhelm the Island unless people can stem the tide and discover new ways to re-use the refuse they already have. The best and the brightest engineers are retro-fitting the world's second tallest building into one of the greenest in the world. And they've got practically no time to do it. A young Architect is trying to become a modern-day Noah by building a vast arc, made only from trash. What they discover are startling new ways to turn trash into treasure. And if they succeed, they believe the world will follow.

Super Solar Yacht
Year: 2011
Length: 45 mins
Director: Mei-juin Chen & Martha Burr
June 8, 19:15 pm

Take a look at the world’s first luxury catamaran powered entirely by solar energy and trace its history from concept to factory to sea trial. The SunCat 46 was built by a team of visionary engineers and yacht makers spanning from Taiwan to Germany. Look behind the scenes at the shipyards of Kaohsiung as Asia’s No. 1 luxury yacht producer builds an amazing new boat that may hold the key to the future of eco-friendly green maritime travel.

Bird without Borders: Black-Faced Spoonbills
Year: 2009
Length: 60 mins
Director: Dean Johnson
June 15, 18:30 pm

Found only in the last few pockets of wilderness along East Asia’s rugged coastline, the black-faced spoonbill is the only spoonbill currently regarded as endangered. Their migratory route is full of danger from predators, the elements, and the biggest threat of all, the loss of habitat from this rapidly developing region. For the very first time, this magnificent 2,000 kilometers migration has been captured on video, from its wintering grounds in Taiwan, across coastal mainland China and the Yellow Sea, to the world’s most dangerous flashpoint—the demilitarized zone between North and South Korea—finally reaching the bird’s annual breeding ground. The film reveals group of dedicated scientists and conservationists who are divided by these borders but share one common goal—the conservation and protection of this endangered species and their last remaining habitats.

Eco Taiwan: Building Magic
Year: 2010
Length: 45 mins
Director: Arthur Mai
June 22, 18:30 pm

While vehicles and factories are often singled out as the main culprits behind global warming, one quarter of all global emissions are generated by buildings and the production of electricity to keep them livable. A handful of passionate and creative individuals have put their careers on the line to prove that inexpensive low-tech building designs are more effective than glitzy western inspired high-tech solutions. But can these Earth warriors convince anyone to try their ideas?

Eco Taiwan: Species Wars
Year: 2010
Length: 45 mins
Director: Deng Wen-bin
June 22, 19:15 pm

Species Wars focuses on the fight to save the innocent victims of mankind’s overconsumption. The Formosan landlocked salmon, one of the rarest creatures on earth, can only survive at cooler temperatures. Can breeding them in captivity save them? Rising temperatures mean that flowers bloom before bees can collect pollen. Can bees’ reproductive cycles be synchronized with flowers once again? As ocean temperatures rise, coral is dying. A coral breeding centre on Taiwan’s southeast coast might hold the key to their survival.