The healing powers of documentary

Scene from Chiufen Erh Shan, where scores of people were buried alive in the 921 earthquake. Hope of finding survivors faded as the excavation process extended into weeks. The site is a focus of a series of documentaries about the quake currently showing in Taipei. PHOTO: TAIPEI TIMES

Sept 28, 1999, one week after the 921 earthquake, hundreds of social groups and charity organizations arrived in the disaster areas to help the rescue and reconstruction work. Full Shot Foundation (全景傳播基金會), a documentary filmmaker workshop, was among them.

The night before setting off to central Taiwan, where the quake hit hardest, the 12 members of the workshop engaged in a long, heated discussion about what they, as filmmakers, could do to help. Reflecting on that moment, they said that as reports from the disaster zone became worse, they became increasingly antsy.

"We should station ourselves in the disaster areas to shoot documentaries long-term. ... Even if you disagree I'll quit my current job and go down there to film on my own. If I can't make a film there, I'll do volunteer work to help, whatever ?" one of the filmmakers said.

"What about expenses? How do you make a film without money?" Lin Hsiu-hua (林秀華), the foundation's accountant, said.

PHOTO: TAIPEI TIMES

"We can't worry about that now. It'll be too late if we don't start shooting," was the reply from another group member.

So the team began its long journey to make a series of documentaries about the earthquake, a journey that for many of the members hasn't yet ended five years later.

"Entering the disaster areas, the pictures we see and the shock they cause render us unable to think at all. We didn't know how and where to start filming. I cannot describe how I felt looking at the residents in those areas. It's as if they had not only lost their homes and families, but also their souls," a Full Shot member wrote in his diary.

PHOTO: TAIPEI TIMES

Wu Yi-feng (吳乙峰), founder of Full Shot and a devoted social worker, as well as a film scholar, led the team of 12 people to shoot in disaster areas in Nantou and Taichung counties. They spent four years shooting and another year in Taipei editing.

The result is seven full-length documentary films showing at the Full Shot Screening Season (全景映像季) at Taipei's President Cinema (總統戲院) and Show Time Cinema (欣欣晶華影城) until Oct. 8, and that have already been screened in villages in Taichung and Nantou, where the films were shot. A final screening will be held Oct. 23 in Heping Township, Taichung County.

Relatives of victims at Chiufen Erh Shan burn ghost money in the days following the 921 earthquake. Part of the mountain collapsed in the quake, burying whole families alive. PHOTO: TAIPEI TIMES

Audiences packed the President Cinema during the first five days of screenings in Taipei beginning last Friday, showing that people's collective memory about the quake had not faded.

PHOTO COURTESY OF FULL SHOT FOUNDATION

"We never expected a documentary film could sell so well. It's totally beyond our expectations. We didn't even prepare enough workers to help with ticketing," said Liu Hua-ling (劉華玲), the foundation's PR manager.

One of the films, Life (生命), even attracted President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) and Premier Yu Hsyi-kun (游錫方方) to a screening. Chen, who seldom shows his soft side in public, said on TV that he cried many times during the film.

Pan Shun-yi and his wife deal with the loss of their daughter in the documentary Life. A still from the movie is shown below. PHOTO COURTESY OF FULL SHOT FOUNDATION

"The film makes one see the vitality of Taiwanese people," Chen was quoted as saying on TV last week.

With that type of endorsement, it's little surprise that all screening sessions at President Cinema are already sold out.

Life is a 142-minute film focusing on residents of Chiufen Erh Shan (九份二山) about families dealing with loss and putting their lives back together again. Chiufen Erh Shan in Nantou County is thought to be one of the epicenters of the 921 earthquake. A massive landslide occurred during the tremor, causing half of the mountain to slip into a valley and snuff out all traces of 20 households in its path.

Wu Yifeng, right, spent four years building trust and friendship with the subjects of his documentary films about the aftermath of the 921 earthquake. PHOTO COURTESY OF FULL SHOT FOUNDATION

Only 17 bodies of the 39 people who were buried alive were recovered. Still buried are farms and 300 deer under mud and rocks piled up to 100m high.

In the film, director Wu avoids focusing on the grief of the victims' families. Instead, he quietly documents their everyday lives over four years after the quake. The images begin with the victims desperately trying to retrieve buried bodies, then dealing with the emotional aftermath of the quake and finally walking out of the shadow of their sorrow.

During the first month after the quake, the victims' families lived in tents near the disaster site, constantly watching the work of the bulldozers, eyes fixated on the dirt and mud being removed. "Yeah! This is debris from my house. We have some hope now! My mother's body may be just underneath here," one of the residents says in the film, while flipping through muddy papers.

Other characters in the film include Pan Shun-yi (潘順義) and his wife who were working in Japan when the earthquake hit. They lost their daughter and her grandparents. Back in Taiwan, staying in the tents nearby, they had trouble voicing their sorrow, but Wu's shots captured their emotions during the excavation process.

Ultimately, the couple decided to re-shoot their wedding photo in Japan to replace the photo buried in the mud as a symbol of a new beginning.

A teenage girl who lost her parents, uncles and grandmother to the quake found escape in different part-time jobs and in computer-game arcades. By the end, she decides to have a baby and to marry her boyfriend to mark a re-birth.

"In the beginning, we rented an apartment in Taichung to serve as the film team's base. We ended up being the tenants of that house for four years," Wu said.

Even the residents began teasing the team about their long slog to finish the documentaries. "They would say: `Hey, are you making a long soap opera or what?' and `Stop shooting or you won't have time to edit,' or We're still waiting for your films to come out,'" Wu said.

Their long stay in the area gained them the trust of the residents and by the end, Wu had shot more than 300 hours of footage with them.

"By the end of the filming process, it was, in fact, the residents who were giving me therapy, teaching me and my family how to find power amid struggle in life," Wu said.

The film also contains a storyline about Wu's aging father. Suffering from a stroke, his father lost hope and the will to live, providing a contrast with the residents fighting to get back on their feet.

Since its establishment in 1988, Full Shot has made five TV documentary series, including The Moon Children (月亮的小孩, 1991), a film about children dealing with albinism that first brought the foundation into the spotlight.

Apart from filmmaking, the foundation also organizes educational programs for documentary-makers, holding filmmaking workshop around island.

The unexpected success of Full Shot's documentaries about the quake led the team to arrange additional screenings at Show Time Cinema (欣欣晶華影城). Full Shot is also negotiating with cinemas in Kaohsiung to open more screenings.

"We're happy to see people supporting local documentaries. We want to be the seeds promoting documentary-making to every corner in Taiwan," Wu said.