A local filmmaker's documentary on Taiwan's anti-nuclear movement offers a new, more personal perspective on the often bitter political debate surrounding the country's use of nuclear power.
The 89-minute documentary, How are you doing, Kungliao?, which opens nationwide in a few weeks, is the debut of 30-year-old Tsui Shu-hsin (
In 1998, when she was a graduate student in Social Transformation Studies at Shih Hsin University, she began to record anti-nuclear activists' lives in Kungliao Township, Taipei County, where the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant is being built, to complete assignments from her professors.
Looking for a fresh angle on the political controversy surrounding the building of the plant, Tsui decided to focus on the personal recollections of anti-nuclear activists, in order to better draw viewers into the subject matter.
She focused on a protest on Oct. 3, 1991, about a week after the Atomic Energy Council (AEC) had conditionally passed the environmental impact assessment for the power plant project.
That day continues to haunt those who were present.
In her film, Tsui stitches together, through interviews, the memories of the people who participated in the event, which is not often mentioned in Taiwanese media.
The film's approach gives it a highly personal take on a complex social and environmental issue.
"In addition to political and economic angles, I believe that nuclear issues can be approached in softer ways, such as through affected people's feelings," Tsui said at a preview held in Taipei by the Green Citizens' Action Alliance.
According to the Kungliao anti-nuclear activists Tsui interviewed, they established a mock funeral canopy in front of the plant's construction site to protest the injustice done by the AEC.
Police started to dismantle the funeral canopy without informing activists in advance. In the clash between police and activists which followed -- later called the "1003 incident" -- a policeman was killed.
Seventeen demonstrators were prosecuted.
Among them, Lin Shun-yuan (
In the documentary, Tsui shows vividly how anti-nuclear activists have remembered Lin's suffering and sent their regards to him at a jail in Hualien, where he has been imprisoned ever since.
One of the highlights of the film is an emotional scene at Fulong Train Station, near Kungliao, on Jan. 12, 2002, when Lin was on leave from jail for the first time.
Lin, a tragic figure mostly forgotten by the public, shyly talked to a crowd of locals and activists with tears, expressing his respect for their persistence.
Lai Wei-chieh (賴偉傑), director-general of the alliance, said the film successfully reflects how development projects like the nuclear power plant can profoundly affect people's lives.
"While [Tsui] was shooting, Taiwanese people experienced a change of [governing] parties in 2000 and witnessed the government's fickleness toward the plant project," Lai said. "But we rarely think about how such fickleness can dramatically affect people's lives."
More than 10 activists interviewed by Tsui in the film have since died. Lai said the long anti-nuclear movement in Kungliao suffered a serious setback and discouragement when the government reversed its decision to halt the project in 2001, under pressure from the pan-blue opposition.
Last year, the documentary won the Best Documentary/DV Winner in the 27th Golden Harvest Award and was selected as an audience favorite at the Green International Film Festival held in Ilan.
The documentary will be shown for free in Taipei on April 17 at Eslite Books on Dunhua Road.
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