I give my standard speech about my Taiwanese-American upbringing and how my parents ended up in Kansas. I speak about my political experience working for FAPA and then later on during the Clinton and Bush Administrations. Then I talk about my transition from DC to Hollywood and the people I've worked with. Finally I talk about how Formosa Betrayed came about, and the process which it took to get to this point.
The first question is from the chair of the panel, who says that he's heard I can do a history of Taiwan in 5 minutes. He asks if I can do it for the audience -- which I do in 4 minutes and 35 seconds. :) Then there are a number of questions from the foreign journalists to clarify previous reports about the difficulties we encountered in trying to shoot the movie in Taiwan. Although this posting wrongly calls me the "director" of the film, you can read most of the back and forth here: http://www.thewildeast.net/news/?p=1444.
Immediately afterwards, we rush to the train station to catch the Taiwan High Speed Rail to Tainan. One of my investors, former government minister Maysing Yang accompanies us. Mrs. Yang is an investor in Formosa Betrayed, and has been key in helping us get the word out about the film. She has bought a screening in Tainan so she is coming to support us. We talk about the distribution strategy for the film -- the advantages and shortcomings. She makes a very prescient analysis -- that the title of the film in Taiwanese -- "被出賣的台灣" tends to appeal to a very "deep-green" audience -- but that the film itself is aimed at a more mainstream audience. I agree with her completely. So we have a bit of a communications dilemma. We talk about whether I should stay in Taiwan longer to help promote the film, and we decide to meet on Monday with a group of other investors and supporters to see whether it makes sense for me to stay.
When we get to Tainan, I'm taken to a radio interview at "Holy Mountain" with Mr. Wang Din Yu. Mr. Wang is a Tainan city counsel member and also radio host. "Holy Mountain" is an underground radio station broadcast both on airwaves and internet. He is so amazingly supportive of Formosa Betrayed and conducts the interview in both English and Taiwanese. You can check it out here: http://a50.video2.blip.tv/7130005825237/Kimpossible-201087TaiwaneseClubAfternoonPart1941.mp3.
Afterwards, we head to Tainan Vieshow Cinemas for the Q&A -- but unfortunately our radio interview ran long and we miss the Q&A -- the audience is just coming out as we get there. I take pictures with some of the audience, then come back for the introduction of the following screening which is being hosted by Mr. Wang and several other well-known Tainan personalities. In the evening, we take the Taiwan High Speed Rail back to Taipei.
The next day, we're back on the HSR to go to a Q&A screening in Kaohsiung, sponsored by Kaohsiung city counsel member Chao Tian Ling. My mom is there to meet us, along with a number of people we met at the Kaohsiung premiere. The audience is very pumped and asks some great questions. As I'm coming out of the theater -- the line is a mile long for the next screening -- great to see! The photo op afterwards is a lot of fun too -- with tons of people thanking me and wanting to support the film. My mom says it must be tiring to keep that constant smile on my face :)
My family treats us out to dinner, and then we head back to Taipei on the High Speed Rail. Now we just have to wait for the weekend box office numbers which will come in tomorrow.... wish us luck!!!!
W.
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