The Academia Sinica is not a institution one usually associates with film festivals, but its impressive resources are now being utilized to host the First Taiwan International Ethnographic Film Festival (
The festival was arranged by Hu Tai-li (
Three films by Margaret Mead, Trance and Dance in Bali, Kaba's First Years and Childhood Rivalry in Bali and New Guinea form a mini retrospective on the anthropologist who played an important role in bringing ethnographic research to a wider public. There is also a chance to see Robert Flaherty's classic Moana: A Romance of the Golden Age (1926), along with the works of many outstanding contemporary filmmakers.
The festival has been subtitled 2001 Island Odyssey, a reference to Stanley Kubrick's 2001 A Space Odyssey. According to Hu, the title suggested itself because now that we have reached 2001, she sees humankind still very much on this planet with a great deal that remains unexplored and strange. The "island odyssey" incorporates the Bali films of Mead, along with a focus on Taiwan's own Orchid Island, and Taiwan's association with island and coastal cultures around the world.
A high point of the festival will be the presence of Dennis O'Rourke, the Australian documentary filmmaker. The festival will open with his Cannibal Tours (1988), and will include screenings of Half Life: A Parable for the Nuclear Age (1985) and The Sharkcallers of Kontu (1982). As a documentary filmmaker who does not wish to be pigeonholed as ethnographic and who has been criticized for his flamboyant involvement in the lives of the people he documents, his presence is intended to inject a note of controversy as to the nature of ethnographic films. He, and many of the other directors involved in the festival, will be present for Q&A sessions after screenings.
The film festival has selected 34 films for the five-day event. Hu said that the films were selected from hundreds of applications, and she hopes that the high quality of the films will establish the festival as an international event in years to come. Li You-chen (
What: First Taiwan International Ethnographic Film Festival
When: Sept. 21 - Sept. 25
Where: Activity Center, Academia Sinica, Nankang, Taipei
Tickets: Advanced purchase: NT$500 for a five-day pass. NT$200 for a one-day pass, with free festival pro- gram. At the door: NT$600 for a five-day pass, NT$250 for a one-day pass
Single screenings: NT$100. Free entry for opening screening 7pm to 10pm, Sept. 21
Tickets are available through Acer ticketing, or at FNAC and Eslite bookstores. More information is available from the festival's Web site at http://www.tieff.sinica.edu.tw (Full program information available in English and Chinese)
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