Taiwan

The Bunun is a High Mountainous tribe, inhabiting in the area of the Central Mountain Range. Most Bunun aborigines are skillful mountain climbers, and are sometimes called the “sherpas” of Taiwan. They have been often hired as guides even up until today. Although back in the early days their work was considered as porterage, assisting mountaineers in carrying their heavy luggages and finding their way up the mountains, no one can ever deny that, while common people happily claim to be “mountaineers”, they know not the fact that almost all the trails up in the Jade Mountain, the highest peak in Taiwan, was built by Bunun Aborigines.
Wu Sheng-Mei and Kuan Kui-Lin were among some of the most famous “sherpas” of Jade Mountain back then. The bronze statue of Yu Yu-jen placed on the top of Jade Mountain was indeed erected by both of them. Unfortunately, their great effort had seriously damaged their health conditions, resulting in their bad knees and legs. This documentary is a lively recording of their current lives and their memories as well as the whole process of carrying the bronze statue of Yu Yu-jen all the way up to the top of Taiwan’s highest point.

The tribe living under the San-ying Bridge is charged with violation of the Water Act every year and will witness the powerful, which is rarely seen, execution of the government’s law enforcement that vacates even the shattered construction material after the demolition. On the other hand, the sand processing plant on the right side of the tribe grows bigger and bigger each day, and the garbage dumpsite on the left bank grows higher and higher each day. The government spends tens of millions of dollars to dispose of the hazardous waste material underneath the bridge. For those who live under the bridge, Ching Yu wants them back to the mountain!

The Pasta’ay, which means the festival of the legendary little people, is a significant ritual held every other year in the Saisiat aborigine group in Taiwan.
Every ten years, they hold the Great Ritual. This film focuses on the Great Ritual in 1986. It tries to convey the Saisiat people’s affection for and belief in the legendary little people. At the same time, the film brings into light Saisiat people’s ambivalence towards tourist invasion, and their dilemma of being caught between tradition and modernization. Structured by the Pasta’ay songs’ movements, the film breaks down to 15 chapters. It carefully juxtaposes the visual with the aural elements, which are conveyed in the conceptual dichotomy between “the real” and “the artificial”.
This film is with the intention to present the content of Pasta’ay (the festival of the legendary little people) of the Saisiat aborigine group in Taiwan by imitating the unusual structure of Pasta’ay songs. The repetitive song pattern seems to reflect the Saisait people’s ambivalent feelings of reverence and fear, welcome and rejection, towards the outsite world, represented by the legendary little people, ta’ay.

Ye Cai was born in 1946. When still quite young, he signed with Eastman Kodak Company as a professional photographer. For seven years, Ye traveled around the world to capture the beauty of all cultures. However, when he saw that people in Europe were very conscious of their own cultures and histories, he gave up on this prestigious job and returned to Taiwan, to the Hakka communities of Hsinchu county. There, he has devoted himself to capturing the essential moments of Hakka life and the beauty of the Hakka culture. Ye has photographed the authentic life of laborers and continues to create photos that chronicle the Hakka culture of Hsinchu County. His photographic masterpieces are a priceless asset to the Hakka people of Hsinchu and to all of Taiwan. This film documents the life and photographs of the artist. It explores the breadth and depth of Hakka culture in the narrations of Ye Cai himself, as well as Hsinchu villagers and local Hakka culture workers.

In my father’s memory, our family had the experience of building a 10- person boat 30 years ago. Father is now the only elder in the family fishing team. Thus, in order to leave the family fishing team a memory of boat building, Father decided to make a new boat after discussing with other members. This film records the stories of the hard experiences of the siradokoran fishing team members from the female point of view, of how they reclaimed land, made up Calla Lily fields, and found timbers for building up the boat.

This film is more than an introduction to the boat-making process and the grand launching ceremony. More importantly, through the boat-making culture, the film shows the important roles that the Tao women played during the process of boat building.