Experiencing Interruptions?

Family Trips

At the end of 2020, the directors found out that their father's job had been affected by the pandemic, causing him to lose balance and direction in life. As a result, they had the idea of inviting their parents to collaborate on a film together. Starting from the brainstorming and planning of the project, they discovered that the most precious material they had was the family travel footage they had been recording for over 30 years. Thus, the documentary "Family Travels" was born.

Over 60 years ago, their father left his hometown of Yanshui and arrived at the Xinying train station with his parents. He jumped onto the train excitedly, not knowing that he would never follow his grandfather to sell pork at the market again. A few hours later, he walked out of the Kaohsiung train station and headed south on Zhongshan Road, becoming a man who grew up in the night markets of the big city.

As he grew up, Taiwan's economy took off. He became a Japanese tour guide and shuttled back and forth between Taiwan and Japan, accompanying numerous families on trips. In his memory, when he returned home, he always slept soundly on the couch, exhausted. The most complete moments of family togetherness were when they traveled with his tours. Family travels became the way to express intimate emotions.

Due to the pandemic, his freedom to fly was restricted and his work stagnated. If in the past, traveling was a way of looking at the vast scenery, then now, he was invited to plan a journey about "himself" and look back on his own life. The film uses Full HD footage shot with mobile phones during this private family trip, as well as V8 footage filmed by the father with his tours when the children were young. The different sizes of the frames show the span of time, and the images shot by the father, mother, son, and daughter interweave with each other. The changes in the perspectives and roles of the cameramen echo the different stages of life within the family.

  • Chi-Fan Liu
    Director
    Where is Mimi going ?
  • Chi-Tung Liu
    Director
    Dwelling in the Invisibility
  • Chi-Fan Liu
    Producer
  • Chi-Tung Liu
    Producer
  • Shyi-Shiun Liu
    Key Cast
    "Father"
  • Ying-Ling Tseng
    Key Cast
    "Mother"
  • Project Title (Original Language):
    家庭旅行
  • Project Type:
    Documentary, Experimental, Short
  • Runtime:
    24 minutes
  • Completion Date:
    November 1, 2022
  • Production Budget:
    50,000 TWD
  • Country of Origin:
    Taiwan
  • Country of Filming:
    Taiwan
  • Language:
    Chinese - Min Nan
  • Shooting Format:
    8mm, cell phone
  • Aspect Ratio:
    16:9
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    Yes
  • Student Project:
    No
  • The Southern Taiwan Film Festival
    Tainan
    November 5, 2022
    Taiwan Premiere
    Citizen TAINAN Award Nominees
  • The 7th Busan Inter-city Film Festival
    Busan
    August 25, 2023
  • TIDF: Taiwan International Documentary Festival
    Taipei
    May 18, 2024
  • Bibliomaniac Fantasy Festival
    Maastricht
    荷蘭
    November 23, 2024
Director Biography - Chi-Fan Liu, Chi-Tung Liu

Liu Chi-Tung and Liu Chi-Fan are Taiwan documantary directors and artists. The documentary "Family Trips" was selected into The Southern Film Festival, and was screened on Taiwan International Documentary Festival, Non-syntax Experimental Image Festival, and Busan Inter-city Film Festival.

Liu Chi-Tung ,B.1993. Graduated from Institute of Trans-disciplinary Arts, Taipei National University of the Arts. A contemporary artist. She focuses on piercing the prick point in daily scenery. Through the recalling of forgotten memories and the connections in her, she pays attention to the invisible rivers under the modern facilities, especially the rupture of language between landscape and the remains recently.

Liu Chi-Fan ,B.1988. Graduated from Institute of Art Creation at National Tsing Hua University and currently works as a freelance artist. In recent years, he has been exploring the intersection between picture book illustration and art creation. His works mainly take the form of flat paintings, semi-three-dimensional installations, and videos, exploring male individuals with feminine qualities in their bodily memories.

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Director Statement

This work is about an experimental trip attempted by a pair of siblings who have moved out for years to get along with their parents again. The directors endeavoured to accompany their parents now, as their parents used to accompany them, with a family trip and home videos. The work is composed of video clips from this journey and the video my father took when tour guiding in the past. The different frame sizes between V8 and full- HD video represents the time span and image interlacing by father, mother, son, and daughter. The shifting of camera shoot and the alteration of being filmed and filming (passive and active), echo the various stages of life in the family and shape a sculpture of family relationships.