A Latin American movie forum held at Ching-sheng International Conference Hall on May 17 was joined by 15 distinguished guests from 10 Latin American allies. These guests are foreign ambassadors, military attaches and consultants from Honduras, Nicaragua and Dominica, among others countries, and are invited to exchange views about the papers by five scholars, including Dr. Francisco Luis Perez of TKU Institute of American Studies, in the forum.

Guatemalan Ambassador William Manuel Tapia Aleman said these topics raised in the seminar are all very interesting ones and he hopes he will be able to join more discussions like this in the future. Dr. Chen Hsiao-chuan, Chair of Institute of Americas also released her paper during the seminar which deals with the darker social issues of the Latin American countries such as wealth gap and spiritual loneliness of their people as shown in these movies. Dr. Chen notes that these movies are quite different from those Hollywood movies. She also said this year’s Latin American Movies week was held simultaneously with the seminar which helps to add color to the annual event. “These countries produce many fine movies but not many Taiwanese have a chance to watch them,” said Chen, adding that this film festival offer an opportunity for all and to promote fascinating Latin American movies to TKU students.

Huang Wen-chih, a second year MA student in the Institute of American Studies, said this forum allows him to better understand Latin American movies. Each of these movies uses different approaches, he said, and his favorite one is “Amores perros.” “This film is close to young people’s life, that’s why I like it,”he said. (translated by Yeh Yun-kai)