Another Form of Alternative Record in an Era of Upheaval: From the Balcony into the Crowd, Over Time
In the late 1980s, Taiwanese society underwent profound upheaval. With the founding of the Democratic Progressive Party in 1986 and the lifting of martial law the following year, street movements emerged in rapid succession, filling public space with clamour and intensity. The wave of democratisation and pluralism swept from street-level movements into the media landscape. At the time, Electronic News Gathering (ENG) cameras and audio recording technologies became widespread. Compared with earlier celluloid film, this equipment was smaller, lighter and more cost-efficient, while also eliminating the need for time-consuming film processing. It therefore aligned closely with the immediacy and circulation required to document protests as they unfolded. It was not only adopted by mainstream news media, but also contributed to the rise of so-called 'alternative media'[1] — including the Green Team, the Third Video, and New Taiwan — which focused on issues long underreported by the mainstream press.
As media practice shifted from celluloid to ENG video, Lee Daw-ming continued to work with 16mm film from 1986 into the early 1990s, producing Beyond the Killing Fields: Refugees on the Thai-Cambodian Border (1986), Songs of Pasta'ay (1988, co-directed with Hu Tai-li) and two further documentaries on environmental movements. While addressing comparable subject matter, his choice of medium diverged markedly from that of alternative media working on the frontlines. Moreover, Beyond the Anti-DuPont Movement: Portraits of Some Social Activists (1990) were not publicly screened until more than a decade after completion, and thus did not operate within the 'real-time' circulation associated with news media. Together, these decisions point to a distinct conceptual approach[2].
This year's 'Reel Taiwan' programme, titled 'The Late 1980s on Film', places the medium of celluloid alongside the historical moment of the late 1980s. Although film was indeed the dominant documentary format of the time, this pairing is not treated as self-evident; rather, it serves to pose a question: why film? At a moment when counter-mainstream voices were rapidly producing 'alternative video' through ENG technology, did Lee's decision to render social movements on celluloid suggest another form of 'alternative record' — one that stands in relation to, yet apart from, 'alternative media'? By presenting four digitally restored works shot on film, the programme invites viewers not only to reflect on their subject matter, but also to attend to the medium itself as a site of meaning.
In 1984, Lee Daw-ming returned to Taiwan after completing his studies in the United States, at the same time that Kuangchi Program Service placed a newspaper advertisement seeking a commissioned director 'proficient in English and familiar with documentary filmmaking'. Equipped with both film equipment and technical expertise, Lee proved an immediate fit, and production began without delay. The choice of celluloid was motivated not only by Kuangchi Program Service's consideration of international distribution, but also by its relative resilience in extreme weather conditions compared with electronic equipment. With financial support from partner organisations, the crew travelled to the Thai-Cambodian border. Under the Khmer Rouge regime, they entered refugee camps along the border to document conditions of survival, resulting in Beyond the Killing Fields: Refugees on the Thai-Cambodian Border.
Using a Nagra audio recorder — then rarely seen in Taiwan — Lee worked in close tandem with cinematographer Chen Sung-mao, moving almost as one through tropical forests and refugee settlements. The result was Taiwan's first documentary on celluloid recorded entirely in sync sound. The film received the Golden Horse Award for Best Documentary in the year following a decision to leave the prize vacant, and marked a departure from earlier winners, often criticised for their propagandistic or didactic tendencies[3]. Both in form and in production method, it signalled a significant shift in the aesthetics and concerns of Taiwanese documentary practice.
Inspired by Roland Joffé's feature film The Killing Fields (1984), the term 'beyond' in Lee's title refers, in geographical terms, to refugee camps situated at the margins of the main battlefield. At the same time, it may also be read as a gesture of resistance against the dominant, large-scale, script-driven production model associated with fiction filmmaking. Working amid uncertainty and with little in the way of a fixed script, Lee followed the daily arrangements of on-site producer Jerry Martinson, adopting a flexible and responsive mode of filming: 'interview whoever is available; film whatever can be filmed'. Sync sound captures scenes of amputee children, villagers constructing temporary shelters, and a visit from a prince. Four decades on, viewers remain closely aligned with the act of recording itself, encountering the film's raw immediacy, unvarnished truth and visceral force.
Beyond international humanitarian concerns, Taiwanese society in the late 1980s also began to turn its attention to questions of identity, particularly those concerning Indigenous peoples and veteran communities. Building on the sync-sound milestone established by Beyond the Killing Fields, anthropologist Hu Tai-li invited Lee Daw-ming to collaborate on Songs of Pasta'ay. Lee was responsible for location sound, while Chang Chao-tang served as cinematographer. While Beyond the Killing Fields relied on a mobile, responsive mode of shooting, Songs of Pasta'ay is structured more like a carefully composed visual essay. Guided by chapter divisions and intertitles, viewers are led into the community and into the ritual space itself, gaining insight into the customs and beliefs underlying each event.
Chang Chao-tang's camera, at once unobtrusive yet distinctly expressive, moves fluidly among the ritual space and its participants. The sheen and texture of the blood of sacrificial animals flowing across the concrete floor, along with the starlike glints on traditional garments in the night, are vividly inscribed in the grain of the film. The rustling of shoulder bells, hip bells and headdresses, together with the dancers' footsteps and resonant chants, are all captured in precise sync. Even across the screen, viewers are drawn into a ritual that unfolds through the night until dawn. To this day, the film remains a key cinematic work for understanding the SaySiyat people and the paSta'ay ritual.
Completed in the early 1990s, Beyond the Anti-DuPont Movement: Portraits of Some Social Activists and Voice of the People (1991) represent two distinct outcomes of a single project documenting the social movements of the late 1980s. In 1989, Lee pitched a documentary series to the Public Television Service production unit, proposing to capture multiple facets of a rapidly changing society, including elections, educational reform and social movements. His segment on social movements, developed under the working title 'Voice of the People', was intended to encompass five or six subjects, among them the anti-DuPont movement in Lukang.
However, just as the first instalment neared completion, Hau Pei-tsun assumed office as Minister of National Defense, and the Government Information Office deemed these topics too 'sensitive' for broadcast, ordering production to cease. Lee subsequently edited the interviews with activists into Beyond the Anti-DuPont Movement: Portraits of Some Social Activists and submitted it to Public Television Service. The remaining footage, documenting environmental protests across Taiwan, was retained and later assembled into Voice of the People, structured around individual protest events.
After its submission to Public Television Service, Beyond the Anti-DuPont Movement: Portraits of Some Social Activists was never publicly screened until 2002, when it was presented at the Taiwan International Documentary Festival. In contrast to alternative video works, which emphasised immediacy and the articulation of the filmmakers' stances, Lee's film moves away from the protest frontlines into the homes of activists and the offices of newspaper journalists, capturing the everyday dilemmas faced by individuals within the broader movement. Meanwhile, Voice of the People documents not only interviews with residents, farmers and fishermen, but also public hearings and the reflections of activist groups after the conclusion of specific events. Shot on celluloid, these two works share a clear conceptual focus: an attention to what lies 'after' and 'beyond' the immediate site of protest, foregrounding the value of retrospective reflection and archival preservation.
In contrast to the emotionally charged voiceovers and the advocacy-driven stance often found in 1980s alternative video, Lee adopts the position of a social observer, concerned primarily with observing, bearing witness and leaving a record. Viewed today, Beyond the Anti-DuPont Movement: Portraits of Some Social Activists may also be read in relation to the Green Team's Lukang Residents' Anti-DuPont Movement (1987), with the two works exemplifying distinct approaches to alternative media and modes of documentary practice. In Lee's film, the Green Team is introduced through a shot of two television monitors playing their videotapes. This moment functions not only as a meta-reflection on media, but also as a retrospective act of recording, in which celluloid becomes a medium for preserving alternative video practices.
Although all four films are directed or co-directed by Lee Daw-ming — which might invite an auteurist reading — this programme instead encourages viewers to situate each work within its historical context. In doing so, it becomes possible to see how Lee, shaped by the contingencies of his time, collaborated with different institutions and individuals, addressed diverse audiences, and negotiated his position as a documentarian. While these four works cannot fully represent an entire era of upheaval, the programme does not seek to reconstruct history through images. Rather, it invites viewers to recognise the varied ways in which filmmakers of the time imagined and practised documentary, and to reflect on the production conditions and processes that underpinned these works.
Lee Daw-ming once cited Chilean filmmaker Miguel Littín, who described two approaches to filmmaking: 'those who stand among the people and work with them' and 'those who address the crowd from a balcony'. Lee identified himself as the latter — a filmmaker who speaks from the balcony[4]. Yet in retrospect, the significance of these works may lie elsewhere: in revealing how acts of recording that appear detached — never fully 'stepping off the balcony' — can, over time, become part of the documentary record itself, continuing to stand alongside the people across time.
Translated by Vincent Po
[1]The term 'alternative media' used in this text is a direct translation of the English original, a convention followed by scholars such as Lucie Cheng and Kuang Chung-shiang in Chinese scholarship. However, depending on the theoretical focus, this concept may also be rendered as 'counter-mainstream media', 'niche media', or 'radical media,' leading to diverse translation approaches within the Chinese context.
For reference, see:
Kuang Chung-shiang (管中祥), '弱勢發聲、告別污名：台灣另類「媒體」與文化行動' ('A Voice for Minorities and Anti-Stigma: Alternative "Media" and Cultural Action in Taiwan'), 傳播研究與實踐 (Journal of Communication Research and Practice), Vol. 1, No. 1, 2011, pp. 105–135.
For alternative Chinese terminology, see also:
Dun Cheng et al. (敦誠等), 邊地發聲：反主流影像媒體與社運記錄 (Voices from the Margins: Counter-mainstream Visual Media and Social Movement Documentation), Taipei: Tonsan Publications Inc., 1992.
[2]Although the delayed public screening resulted from intervention by the authorities at the time, Lee Daw-ming's use of celluloid also marked a deliberate distinction from alternative media groups such as the Green Team. In the interview for this programme, Lee emphasised that his aim in documenting social movements was to 'preserve a historical record', rather than to engage in the immediate 'social communication' already carried out by others.
For Lee Daw-ming's interview, see:
Fa電影欣賞 (Film Appreciation Journal), No. 206, 2026.
[3]At the 22nd Golden Horse Awards in 1985, the jury decided to leave the Best Documentary award vacant. Some members considered that most submissions were overly didactic — many being industrial promotional films, informational briefings or newsreels — and 'did not meet the internationally recognised definition of a documentary'. While a minority disagreed with this view, they nevertheless concurred that the overall quality of submissions was low, leading to the final decision.
Following the announcement, Jury President King Hu (Hu Jinquan) invited Lee Daw-ming, then a member of the jury, to explain the decision on behalf of the panel. In his written response, Lee invoked John Grierson's definition of documentary as the 'creative treatment of actuality', thereby foregrounding the importance of authorial perspective in documentary practice.
For reference, see:
Lee Daw-ming (李道明), '什麼是紀錄片？' ('What Is a Documentary?'), 聯合月刊 (United Monthly), No. 52, 1985, pp. 76–86.
[4]Lee Daw-ming (李道明), '在陽台上演講的電影工作者——兼談我拍社會運動紀錄片的經驗' ('A Filmmaker Speaking from the Balcony: Reflections on Filming Social Movements'), in:
Dun Cheng et al. (敦誠等), 邊地發聲：反主流影像媒體與社運記錄 (Voices from the Margins: Counter-mainstream Visual Media and Social Movement Documentation), Taipei: Tonsan Publications Inc., 1992, pp. 73–90.
This article was later republished in Fa電影欣賞 (Film Appreciation Journal), No. 206, 2026.
