The First Kaohsiung Film Festival / 關懷亞洲‧放眼國際‧第一屆「高雄電影節」
Cosponsored by the Kaohsiung Cultural Foundation, Tainan National College of the Arts, and KCG's Department of Information (DOI), the first Kaohsiung Film Festival proved to be a big success. With this festival held in Kaohsiung, the KCG hopes to remedy the north-south cultural imparity, bringing film festivals closer to citizens in southern Taiwan.
A small but beautiful international film festival, the first Kaohsiung Film Festival mainly featured Asian films with three themes: the "Korean Focus," "Crossing Asian Frontiers," and "Taiwan Experience." It had screened altogether 37 movies from 9 Asian countries. In addition, a large seminar on "transborder joint venture on and promotion of cinema in Asia" was held during the film festival.
Guan Bi-ling, director of DOI, said although the budget for the first Kaohsiung Film Festival was very limited, the DOI had tried to make it a reality so that people in southern Taiwan could enjoy good movies without traveling far distances to Taipei to attend a film festival.
Currently the DOI is planning a movie library in Kaohsiung. Movie fans and researchers in southern Taiwan will greatly benefit from the library when it formally opens at the end of 2002.
第一屆「高雄電影節」在熱情影迷依依不捨下圓滿完成。由高雄市文化基金會主辦、高雄市政府新聞處策劃執行、國立台南藝術學院承辦的「高雄電影節」，是高雄市政府首度舉辦的大型國際影展，讓南台灣觀眾有機會參與國際影展盛會，平衡向來重北輕南的文化失衡現象。
高雄電影節是一次小而美的國際影展，選片方向以「亞洲片」為主，共分三大專題，分別是「韓國焦點」、「亞洲跨界」及「台灣經驗」，共有來自台、港、中、韓、日、泰、星、印度、印尼等９個國家、37部片共襄盛舉。
新聞處管碧玲處長表示，高雄電影節是以非常拮据的經費籌辦，想到長期以來台灣的影展活動均以台北為主，南台灣的觀眾想觀賞影展影片都必須北上，這是促使新聞處想要推動屬於南台灣影展的動機。引進好的電影讓高雄人觀賞，及邀請亞洲電影有影響力人士來高雄對談亞洲電影，是本次電影節的二個重要方向。新聞處也正積極籌建高雄電影圖書館，預計91年底正式開館，屆時將可提供熱愛電影文化，及研究電影藝術的南台灣民眾一個探討鑽研的空間。