After more than a year of preparation and with the participation of more than 400 people from two remote Atayal villages, the filming of a movie dedicated to the Atayal tribe will begin next week.
A Thousand Years of Atayal (泰雅千年) started out as a request from the Shei-pa National Park (雪霸國家公園) to shoot a documentary recording the life and culture of the Atayal who live in the national park, Lu Szu-yueh (盧思岳), producer of the movie, said at a press conference in Taipei yesterday.
"But we decided that, instead of making a straight documentary, we'd add a storyline to make it more interesting," Lu said.
Chen Wen-pin (
The story revolves around the life of a young Atayal man called Yukan, who works in a big city and has recurring dreams of an ancient Atayal village.
Yukan later discovers that the village is actually the home of his ancestors and decides to return to it in search of his identity.
Determined to inject more local color into the movie and create a movie that reflects the life of the Atayal people from an Aboriginal perspective, Lu asked for the Atayal community's assistance and involvement in the project.
"The Aborigines didn't just act, they also participated in the production," Lu said.
All decisions made about the movie had to be approved by an 11-member committee made up of residents in two nearby Atayal villages, Lu said.
Meanwhile, a traditional Atayal village used in the filming of the ancient village was constructed based on ancient knowledge and using local materials.
"The village elders led the younger residents in building the houses based on traditional Atayal methods," Lu said, adding that more than 400 Aborigines were involved in the construction.
All the actors in the movie were also recruited and trained locally, Lu said.
"I hope [the making of the film] can help us preserve our culture and rediscover those traditions that have long been lost," said Yumin, an Atayal man who participated in the making of the movie.
Unlike past films on the same subject, "99 percent of the dialogue in the movie will be in Atayal," Chen said.
The movie is expected to be released at the end of the year, Chen said.
Kenting National Park service technician Yang Jien-fon (楊政峰) won a silver award in World Grand Prix Photography Awards Spring Season for his photograph of two male rat snakes intertwined in combat. Yang’s colleagues at Kenting National Park said he is a master of nature photography who has been held back by his job in civil service. The awards accept entries in all four seasons across six categories: architectural and urban photography, black-and-white and fine art photography, commercial and fashion photography, documentary and people photography, nature and experimental photography, and mobile photography. Awards are ranked according to scores and divided into platinum, gold and
More than half of the bamboo vipers captured in Tainan in the past few years were found in the city’s Sinhua District (新化), while other districts had smaller catches or none at all. Every year, Tainan captures about 6,000 snakes which have made their way into people’s homes. Of the six major venomous snakes in Taiwan, the cobra, the many-banded krait, the brown-spotted pit viper and the bamboo viper are the most frequently captured. The high concentration of bamboo vipers captured in Sinhua District is puzzling. Tainan Agriculture Bureau Forestry and Nature Conservation Division head Chu Chien-ming (朱健明) earlier this week said that the
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus yesterday said it opposes the introduction of migrant workers from India until a mechanism is in place to prevent workers from absconding. Minister of Labor Hung Sun-han (洪申翰) on Thursday told the Legislative Yuan that the first group of migrant workers from India could be introduced as early as this year, as part of a government program. The caucus’ opposition to the policy is based on the assessment that “the risk is too high,” KMT caucus secretary-general Lin Pei-hsiang (林沛祥) said. Taiwan has a serious and long-standing problem of migrant workers absconding from their contracts, indicating that
TRADE-OFF: Beijing seeks to trade a bowl of tempura for a Chinese delicacy, an official said, while another said its promises were attempts to interfere in the polls The government must carefully consider the national security implications of building a bridge connecting Kinmen County and Xiamen, China, the Public Construction Commission (PCC) said yesterday. PCC Commissioner Derek Chen (陳金德), who is also a minister without portfolio, made the remarks in a meeting of the legislature’s Transportation Committee, after Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Hsu Fu-kuei (徐富癸) asked about China’s proposal of new infrastructure projects to further connect Kinmen and Lienchiang (Matsu) counties with Xiamen. China unveiled the bridge plan, along with nine other policies for Taiwan, on Sunday, the last day of Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun’s (鄭麗文) visit
RSS