Taiwan

This film documents the boat-building and rowing process from Tao Island to Taiwan, sponsored by the “2007 Dream Project: Rowing 2007 Ocean Etude.” It shows the essence of Tao oceanic culture. The director worked with his good Tao friend, Shyaman Vengaayen, as the curators of an exhibition project about the traditional Tao boat-building culture at the National Museum of Natural Science in Taichung. They asked Shyaman Vengaayen’s father how to tread those taboos and scared ceremonies in Taiwan. “Why are you so worried? There’s no our spirits in Taiwan,” Father said so. The Tao people are facing the double bind of traditional cultural discipline and modernization’s impacts. This film shows how they look at, reflect on, adjust to, and cope with the experience of reconciling tradition and modernity through the process of boating-building and sailing.

This film is a visual journal on fear and courage, loss and gain, and illness and healing in life. It is also a conversation between daughter and father, as well as a reflective monologue on the memory of hope and sorrow. After her father got cancer, the director learned to use the camera to record her father’s struggle. They went through all kinds of treatment together. This unbreakable connection supported them to the very last moment … and never fade away.

The story of FAMILY occurred on the night of January 13, 2006, when John visited his grandfather during a weekend holiday. The next morning, he was found dead. His family decided to put their sorrow aside and donated John’s organs and body. This film redefines the value and meaning of life by focusing on mutual ennoblement and empowerment. Sorrow is transformed into a deep realization and inspiration to live a fuller life.

Leprous Life records the life stories of leprous patients at Lo-sheng Hospital in Hsin-chuang, Taiwan. The shooting took eight years. Many patients came to Lo-Sheng when they were children, and they have been convicted of life imprisonment by the society. They left home and were jailed in Lo-Sheng for almost fifty years. When the Taipei Metro Rapid Transit Company started to build a factory building, Lo-Sheng was demolished. Patients of Lo-Sheng started resisting…

For the ALS patients, the internet is the best tool to extend their mind and body. Right now, Hsieh Shih-yu lives at the Motor Neuron Disease Center. Although he cannot move and speak, Hsieh Shih-yu can communicate with his son who studies in the United States via e-mail and webcam. Mr. and Mrs. Hsieh have created an incredibly well-communicated and intimate family in the ALS field with the combination of his never-ending learning and her never-failing caring spirit.