〚▒〖░ Festival Theme ░〗▒〛
Fables of De/Industrialization
Fables of De/Industrialization
The 13th Taiwan International Ethnographic Film Festival (TIEFF) has officially unveiled this year’s key visual, created by artist Candy Bird, who was invited to interpret the festival theme, Fables of De/Industrialization, through a fresh and thought-provoking design.
Curated by anthropologist and sound artist DJ Hatfield, this year’s theme focuses on the material and mythical dimensions of industrial and post-industrial spaces and processes. Through ethnographic films that explore infrastructure, ruins, and the uncanny experiences of displacement, the festival seeks to trace what South African writer Rob Nixon calls slow violence—the gradual, often invisible damage wrought by socio-economic transformations—as well as the more direct impacts of industrialization and its institutions.
Among the 18 films from 10 countries selected for this year’s screenings, the festival will also delve into topics such as the processes of gentrification, nostalgia for traditional industrial labor, the continuation of artisanal techniques, and how communities reclaim and restore once-abandoned spaces.
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The festival’s key visual, illustrated by Candy Bird, features figures in an industrial city, wearing headlamps and laboring diligently—watering the scrap metal from which flowers begin to bloom. This imagery aims to infuse a sense of healing and warmth into a world increasingly tilted between primal human nature and the cold steel of modernity. It seeks to express that even amid the fractures and losses of post-industrialization, the potential for regeneration, hope, and poetic renewal still exists.
This year’s festival features two versions of the key visual design: one that integrates real-world scenes, and another that is entirely hand-drawn—respectively representing the dual aspects of “De/Industrial” and “Fables.”
Which visual style do you like better?
Illustration: Candy Bird
Visual Design: 董彥欐
