Life as portrayed by cinema, warts and all

The Boy Who Plays on the Buddhas of Bamiyan, by Phil Grabsky, is a touching movie following the life of a little boy in Afghanistan. PHOTO COURTESY OF GREEN INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL

For those who enjoy seeing films not just for entertainment but also for a deeper picture of the world, Green International Film Festival (GIFT, 宜蘭國際綠色影展) offers some movie treats.

The festival starts in Ilan this weekend, through to April 9. It features 30 local and international films about environmental protection, ecology and rethinking of globalization. The solid program and free admission to the festival makes the trip to Ilan worthwhile.

The opening film, Corporation, by Mark Achbar and Jennifer Abbott is a heavyweight film that offers critical thinking about the unbridled expansion of capitalism and its bad products, such as pollution, tax fraud and consumer scams.

The film takes the audience on a journey through history and gives contemporary case studies, while prominent interviewees such as Noam Chomsky, Michael Moore, CEO Ray Anderson and Milton Friedman try to formulate visions of the future and negate persistent fallacies about the machinery behind private enterprises.

Another film The Boy Who Plays on the Buddhas of Bamiyan, by Phil Grabsky, is a touching movie following the life of a little boy in Afghanistan.

The Taliban's deliberate destruction of the Buddhas of Bamiyan in March 2001 caused an international furore. Less well known are the 250 refugee families who fled to Bamiyan's caves to escape the Taliban's brutality, hoping to find work in rebuilding the treasures.

Mir an eight-year-old boy, lively, playful and resilient, making the most of the playground potential of his devastated environment, while his family ekes out a bare-bones existence, amidst constant worry over the next meal.

Revered Japanese filmmaker Tsuchimoto Noriaki is the director in focus at GIFT. Regarded as one of the major figures in Japanese documentary history, Tsuchimoto is best known for his series on the so-called "Minamata disease."

Over the past 40 years he has made 15 films focusing on the plight of those who suffer from "Minamata," an illness caused by mercury pollution in the coastal waters around the fishing community of Minamata.

GIFT showcase four of these films and the 76 year-old Tsuchimoto himself will pay a visit to Ilan to talk to audiences.

Movie should not miss an interesting "road movie" featuring actor Woody Harrelson -- Go Further. The film follows Harrelson as he takes a small group of friends on a bus ride down the US Pacific Coast Highway. Their goal is to advocate alternative lifestyles and non-environmental-destructive behaviors.

The travelers include a yoga teacher, a raw food chef, a hemp-activist, a junk-food addict and a college student who suspends her life to impulsively hop aboard. This is a lively and truthful film documenting the hostility as well as the inner conflicts these pilgrims encounter on the road.

For more information:

Visit www.film.e-land.gov.tw or call (03) 931 1749, (02) 8771 8397.