2021

C'roh Is Our Name

The Pangcah people living in the urban area used to compete and win the dragon boat race every year, but only as hired agents in a festival event of the Han Taiwanese. In 1995, a team of Pangcah contestants decided to compete in the race under the names of their community and homeland, 'C'roh of Yuli, Hualien', striving for glory to honour their true origin.

Children in Heaven

Charged with violation of the Water Act, the indigenous community living under the San-ying Bridge was forced to witness their shelters and homes being torn down by the government every year, while the sand and gravel processing plant on the east bank grew larger and larger; the garbage mountain on the west bank higher and higher. This absurd cycle became so familiar that the children of the community began to build and demolish make-believe houses as a game.

As Life, As Pangcah

Part oral history, part reflection on a culture at risk of being erased, this documentary presents a deep dialogue between a 94-year-old Pangcah chieftain and an indigenous filmmaker. Through words and songs, hunting trips and weaving of vines, the elderly chieftain lives and embodies the ways of the Pangcah people. He also recounts his frustrated attempts in defending traditional culture against Taiwan's encroaching modernity.

The Traditional Clothes of Raisinay Village

After restoring their Ceremony of Ancestral Spirits, the Atayal people of the Raisinay Village, Miaoli County, were distressed by the absence of their traditional garments. Yuma Taru, a researcher of Atayal folk costume, decided to trace back their history by conducting interviews with the elders, learning weaving techniques from them. This documentary captures the passing down of the weaving art, and the younger generation’s yearnings for revival of their traditional clothes.

The Painter from Fata'an

ZHENG Jin-sheng of the Fata'an community , Hualien, lost his right hand and left leg in a childhood accident. A man with a positive attitude to life, he worked in carpentry, caught pond loaches, and enjoyed dancing with his people. Most impressive of all, he trained hard to become a wall-painting expert, leading a life devoted to his work.

Song of the Wanderer

Song of the Wanderer features a group of 'voiceless people', a part of the indigenous community in which the filmmaker resides. Due to frustrations with work, divorce, and life in general, they are often subject to isolation, emotional breakdowns, and even self-harm behaviours. The filmmaker engages them in genuine conversations, while inviting the viewer to listen to these 'voiceless people' sing: In their songs are their true feelings.

Please Give Us a Job

In the 1990s, foreign migrant workers began to occupy the Taiwanese workforce under the government’s new policy. Many indigenous labourers lost their jobs and were forced to return to their homelands, squeezing out a living on odd jobs, frustrated and powerless. Please Give Us a Job records their unheard voices against a backdrop of economic growth, and observes the rivalry and tension between foreign workers and indigenous workers.

Looking for the Salt

In 1999, the Indigenous Culture Club at the National Taiwan University held a series of annual ceremony activities as a tribute to traditional indigenous rituals. So unfamiliar with their native languages and cultures, however, the student organisers found themselves in an awkward position that brought them into conflict with the school administration. Where would they find the 'salt', an in-depth understanding of their cultural identities and backgrounds?

Angoo

My sister Pei-ling went through with an unexpected pregnancy. The child was nicknamed Angoo. In three years, Pei-ling broke up with the child's father, met a new boyfriend, left Angoo in my parents’ care to move in with her boyfriend, until she finally moved back in with our family due to the disapproval of her boyfriend's brother. The parent-daughter relationship was strained at first, but gradually things changed; understanding and love returned between them.

Where Has the Land Gone?

Mabanan is an Atayal settlement in Miaoli County, where the filmmaker was born. During the Japanese colonial rule, most of the indigenous community’s land was expropriated and registered as state-owned forest. The Kuomintang (KMT) government later imposed even more restrictions on the use of the land. How would the Mabanan community reclaim their homeland when the government still refused to recognise proofs of residence of their ancestors?

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