The 2009 Taiwan International Ethnographic Film Festival to be held in Taipei next month will showcase 34 films from 11 countries.
Lin Wen-ling (林文玲), curator of the biennial event, said the films at the festival, which will run from Oct. 2 to Oct. 6, feature indigenous, traditional and alternative healing practices of different cultures. The films also explore the issues of suffering and care, as well as depicting viewpoints on life and death, he said.
With “body and soul” as the main theme of this year’s entries, the 34 films are from the US, China, South Korea, the UK, France, Israel, Australia, Nepal, Norway, Belgium and Taiwan.
US ethnographic filmmakers Timothy and Patsy Asch and anthropologist Linda Connor, who jointly produced A Balinese Trance Seance and Releasing the Spirits: A Village Cremation in Bali, have been selected to be this year’s directors in focus.
Another director in focus will be Bilin Yabu of Taiwan’s Atayal Tribe. Two of his films will be shown during the five-day event.
One of Bilin Yabu’s films is a documentary The Stories of Rainbow (彩虹的故事), which is about the Atayal legend of the rainbow that leads the soul of a deceased person to heaven after he or she dies. The facial tattoos of the tribe’s people is the way for them to reach the rainbow.
Bilin Yabu’s other work Through Thousands of Years (走過千年) is a film about the migration history of the Atayal people and the intercultural conflicts they experienced.
Launched in 2001, the film festival is sponsored by the Taiwan Association of Visual Ethnography, a non-profit organization dedicated to greater public awareness of documentary and ethnographic films, and the Academia Sinica’s Institute of Ethnology.
Opening at 7pm on Oct. 2, the 34 films will be screened at the Taipei Shin Kong Cineplex from 10am to midnight from Oct. 3 to Oct. 6.
The curator has invited some directors to join the audience in post-screening discussions.
Several Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) officials including Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) are to be summoned for questioning and then transferred to prosecutors for holding an illegal assembly in Taipei last night, the Taipei Police said today. Chu and two others hosted an illegal assembly and are to be requested to explain their actions, the Taipei City Police Department's Zhongzheng (中正) First Precinct said, referring to a protest held after Huang Lu Chin-ju (黃呂錦茹), KMT Taipei's chapter director, and several other KMT staffers were questioned for alleged signature forgery in recall petitions against Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislators. Taipei prosecutors had filed
Taiwan would welcome the return of Honduras as a diplomatic ally if its next president decides to make such a move, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said yesterday. “Of course, we would welcome Honduras if they want to restore diplomatic ties with Taiwan after their elections,” Lin said at a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, when asked to comment on statements made by two of the three Honduran presidential candidates during the presidential campaign in the Central American country. Taiwan is paying close attention to the region as a whole in the wake of a
President William Lai (賴清德) has appointed former vice president Chen Chien-jen (陳建仁) to attend the late Pope Francis’ funeral at the Vatican City on Saturday on his behalf, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said today. The Holy See announced Francis’ funeral would take place on Saturday at 10am in St Peter’s Square. The ministry expressed condolences over Francis’ passing and said that Chen would represent Taiwan at the funeral and offer condolences in person. Taiwan and the Vatican have a long-standing and close diplomatic relationship, the ministry said. Both sides agreed to have Chen represent Taiwan at the funeral, given his Catholic identity and
NEW WORLD: Taiwan is pursuing innovative approaches to international relations through economics, trade and values-based diplomacy, the foreign minister said Taiwan would implement a “three-chain strategy” that promotes democratic values in response to US tariffs, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said. Taiwan would aim to create a “global democratic value chain,” seek to capitalize on its position within the first island chain and promote a “non-red supply chain,” Lin was quoted as saying in the ministry’s written report to the Legislative Yuan submitted ahead of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee meeting slated for today. The Ministry would also uphold a spirit of mutual beneficial collaboration, maintaining close communication and consultations with Washington to show that Taiwan-US cooperation