Light, Shadow - CHANG Chao-Tang (2011)

"Light, Shadow - CHANG Chao-Tang" is a documentary directed by Fu Chi-Chung, built around autobiographical footage that Chang Chao-Tang filmed and edited himself after receiving Taiwan’s National Award for Arts in 1999. The film expands this material with reflections on his life since then, analyses of works from his high-school years, and interviews with people connected to his practice, forming a concise portrait of his life and artistic career. Eschewing conventional narration, the film relies on ambient sound, location audio, and black-and-white slide projections of Chang’s photographs. By revisiting sites from his earlier works, it creates a dialogue between past and present while documenting the everyday lives and rituals of ordinary people in Taiwan. Through a stance of being “present” yet “non-intervening,” Chang’s images bear witness to the transformations of Taiwanese society over the past half century.