Films dealing with Taiwanese Aboriginal culture are to be shown at a number of Aboriginal villages and towns around the nation to encourage Aborigines to tell their own stories.
The screenings will take place starting today.
Wsay Kolas, head of the Indigenous Peoples Cultural Foundation, said the films, made by Aborigines as well as Han Taiwanese directors, would be screened in the open and they would be free.
Following the screenings, villagers would be encouraged to discuss Aboriginal topics with the directors, Kolas said.
“The purpose of the screenings is to help Aborigines establish their own perspective and subjectivity,” Kolas said. “We hope to encourage villagers to pick up video cameras and to film their own stories.”
Bauki Angaw, a communications professor and the coordinator of the event, said he hoped that by “bringing the movies home” the event would not only help Aborigines become aware of how they are perceived, but also encourage directors to take responsibility for the works they produce.
“Aborigines are not only good at baseball and dancing,” director Laway Dalay said.
He said he hoped the event would help his people better understand their culture and introduce to them the traditions of other tribes.
Dalay’s film, Losing Sea Horizon, portrays the Amis tribe’s relationship with the ocean.
The event comes on the back of the success of Warriors of Rainbow: Seediq Bale by Taiwanese director Wei Te-sheng (魏德聖). The film depicts the Wushe Incident (霧社事件), in which Mona Rudao of the Sediq led a revolt against the Japanese in the 1930s.
The screenings are scheduled to be held today at Wanrong village, Wanrong Township (萬榮) in Hualien County; on Nov. 19 in Nanao Township (南澳), Yilan County; on Nov. 20 in the Chenggong (成功) district of Greater Taitung; on Nov. 24 in Sinyi Township (信義), Nantou County; on Nov. 26 in the Liouguei (六龜) district of Greater Kaohsiung; on Nov. 27 in Taiwu Township (泰武), Pingtung County; on Dec. 3 in Houlong Township (後龍), Miaoli County; and on Dec. 4 in Sijhih (汐止), New Taipei City (新北市).
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