Many Chinese directors find that once they complete films, they are unable to ever screen them to audiences in their own country for fear of meeting with censorship or punishment by their own government. Such films are however often able to be shown outside of China, and the 2009 TaipeiFF is proud to present several such films, including JIA Zhang-ke’s Cry Me a River, the Mongolian film Jalainur and ZI Han’s Mr. Jia and His Friends. Also, five mainland Chinese film directors will attend screenings to present their works.

This rare, cutting edge section of Chinese films appears in TaipeiFF’s “Chinese Cinerama” section, a showcase for films from greater China including China, Hong Kong and Taiwan.

Lala’s Gun is a coming of age tale about a boy from one of the ethnic minorities in southwestern China, the Miao, though it is told by director NING Jing-wu, a Han Chinese from Beijing. Director PENG Tao, a specialist in disallowed subject matter, meanwhile delivers a Chinese answer to Slumdog Millionaire with his Floating in Memory, the story of a girl who is kidnapped into the sex trade.

Night of an Era looks back at China’s rock scene of 20 years ago from the present day, starting with China’s godfather of rock, CUI Jian performing ”Less than Nothing”, the song that changed Chinese rock and roll forever, in Beijing’s Worker’s Stadium on May 9, 1986. The film’s director, SHENG Zi-min, is best known as a producer who’s worked on films by JIA Zhang-ke and Hong Kong’s Fruit CHAN.

Director Emily TANG is best know for China’s only film to date to address, albeit through inference and omission, the Tiananmen massacre of 1989, her 2001 work Conjugation. Here she returns with Perfect Life, a story about two girls, one form north China, the other seeking a new cosmopolitan life in the south.

Wheat Harvest may be the most attention getting film in this section, having won awards and critical recognition at festivals around the world. This documentary about prostitutes on the outskirts of Beijing comes from first time director XU Tong.