An online crowdfunding campaign kicked off Thursday for a movie that details the fictional stories of three women incarcerated on Green Island, the first Taiwanese motion picture to explore the subject of female political prisoners during the martial law era.
The film, titled "Untold Herstory," focuses on three women who are incarcerated on Taiwan's Green Island in the 1950s. It is adapted from author Tsao Chin-jung's (???) "Bonfire Island: Untold Herstory," which is a collection of interviews with former female political prisoners imprisoned on the island.
The movie stars Yu Pei-jen (???), who portrays a 17-year-old high school student; Herb Hsu (???), who takes on the role of a young mother named Yan Shui-hsia (???); and Cindy Lien (???), who plays a dancer.
Director Zero Chou (???), who has taken an active interest in gender equality issues, told CNA that Tsao's interviewees and their willpower while fighting for survival and holding onto their own values really resonated with her.
She hopes the movie conveys to the audience the same grit, courage and tenacity she felt in the words of the interviewees, Chou said.
"Hopefully, this film will become an important testament to the age of transitional justice," she added.
According to Chou, the film crew spent more than a year scoping the site of the former prison on Green Island off the southeastern coast of Taiwan, as well as talking with political prisoners and their relatives.
However, all that was left of the prison were some wooden pillars, so the crew had to build a set from scratch, she said.
"The greatest challenge that the actors faced was to deliver their lines in the native dialect of the characters they play, and use the correct terminology of the times to faithfully capture the zeitgeist of the 1950s," the director said.
The film crew hopes to raise NT$10 million (US$333,717) for the film, which is ready to go into post-production, to cover the cost of post-production, promotional work and ensuring the movie is screened domestically and overseas.
Source: Focus Taiwan News Channel