Acclaimed American filmmaker Julie Dash will be celebrated for her accomplishments in filmed entertainment with a retrospective of her work at the festival.

According to an AIT statement released Friday, Dash will give a lecture on "Issues of Female Representation and Racial Identity" at the Taiwan Women's Center on Oct. 28.

Dash's 1991 film Daughters of the Dust, which was chosen as the opening movie of the 2009 Women Make Waves Festival, was the first full-length feature film directed by an African-American woman to receive general theatrical release in the United States, the AIT said.

The film has since been included in the Library of Congress' National Film Registry.

The lecture will also include commentary from American filmmakers Jennifer Phang, the director of Half-Life (2008), the closing film of this year's festival; and Daisy Lin Shapiro, the director of Yours Truly, Miss Chinatown (2008), which will also be screened during the festival.

Several other of Dash's films have also been included in this year's lineup, such as Sax, Cantor Riff (1997), Funny Valentines (1999), Incognito (1999), Love Song (2000), and The Rosa Parks Story (2002).

The 2009 Women Make Waves Film Festival, which opened Friday, is being held at Taipei's Shin Kong Cineplex until Oct. 25, and at locations throughout Taiwan from Oct. 26 to Dec. 31.

Established in 2000, the Women Make Waves International Film Festival is held annually by the nonprofit Taiwan Women's Film Association and aims to widen the creative vision of women filmmakers in Taiwan and provide a platform for artistic exchanges with women filmmakers from around the world.

(By Rachel Chan)