Absent without Leave
This story begins with a man’s portrait hanging in my family home in Malaysia. The identity of this man has always been a taboo, until one day I discovered it was my grandfather, whose identity was...
From Now On
It has been eight years since Typhoon Morakot swept through Siaolin Village, Taiwan. It left 462 inhabitants dead, including Mr WENG’s beloved family. Like the other 46 survivors, WENG struggled to...
Blood Amber
Somewhere in northern Myanmar, there is a forest rich in amber and controlled by the Kachin Independence Army. Most of the inhabitants there make a living by finding amber as it is their only hope to...
Funeral Video
My youngest granduncle is the photographer in my extended family. On every special occasion, we always see him moving about with a camera. Switching from analogue to digital compact cameras, he...
Stranger in the Mountains
During the Chinese Civil War, some KMT forces retreated over the borders of Thailand and Myanmar. Under international pressure, most of these troops were evacuated to Taiwan in 1961, yet some...
The Silent Teacher
In Taiwan, a dead body used for medical dissection is called ‘a silent teacher’. This film tells the story of Mrs LIN, whose body will be dissected the next year. In the dissection class, Mrs LIN,...
Condemned Practice Mode
HSU Tzu-chiang was pronounced guilty and sentenced to death in a 1995 kidnapping and murder case despite the lack of forensic evidence. After a 16-year effort by NGOs, HSU was released with a life...
Wayfinding to the Sea
The loneliness of the ocean and various legal restrictions have made the islanders of Taiwan think twice about getting close to the water. This film follows an ordinary citizen who builds a vessel on...
Spectrum of Nostalgia
T. S. ELIOT: ‘What might have been is an abstraction remaining a perpetual possibility only in a world of speculation.’ About the past, my memories are fading and my past self is also vanishing. This...