Formosa Betrayed

Writer/Producer, and Principal Cast Member Will Tiao scheduled for attendance
Sponsored by Taiwanese American Professionals-DC

Inspired by actual events, Formosa Betrayed, starring James Van Der Beek (“Dawson’s Creek”, Varsity Blues), tells the story of an FBI agent who investigates the murder of a Taiwanese American professor at a small Midwestern college who became seemingly involved with Taiwan’s struggle for independence.

Agent Jake Kelly (Van Der Beek) travels to Taiwan, a land he knows little about, as part of his investigation. There, he is exposed to a culture that is foreign, a group of individuals he cannot trust, and people whom he has to find to rely on. His investigation additionally causes him to confront, head on, the complicated relationship between the FBI, the State Department, the Chinese mafia and the Nationalist Chinese government.

This initial project from Formosa Films brings to light the tense political situation in Taiwan that is often overlooked. On the island of Formosa, more commonly known in the West as Taiwan, the 1970s and 1980s were years full of struggles for democracy and independence for a land caught up in tense Taiwan-US-China relations. Centered around a suspenseful plot, Formosa Betrayed brings attention to the efforts by activists both within and outside of Taiwan who were harassed, tortured and even murdered in the name of Taiwanese self-determination and democracy during this time period.
— Grace Choi