Taiwan

The Amis people of the coastal areas have maintained a tightly knitted relationship with the ocean, and this co-existence helps both humans and the ocean to mutually define each other. An intertidal zone is such a place where the Amis people interact with the ocean. Between the ebb and flow of the tides, there is Masia’c, an Amis word used specifically to describe a tidal phase without any equivalent Chinese translation; when the rising tide has reached its fullness and is about to retreat, schools of fish searching for food in the intertidal zone begin to panic, comes the best time for the Amis people to cast the net and catch the fish. Fish risks its life in the intertidal zone for survival, just like the Amis people gamble on their survival, casting the net with high hopes and expectations. In the end, either the fish dies or the humans survive. Masia’c is basically a gigantic marine casino interwoven with various forms of life and death, opportunities and luck, excitement and losses. As the villages located in the peripheral regions of the dominating society, the relationship between the villages and major cities is similar to the intertidal zones and the ocean. Just like some Amis people who dwell in the sea of the urban areas return to the intertidal zone in villages during specific seasons to take up cultural nutrients, when their time is up, they must leave the village and return to the sea of the urban areas. Indeed, some youngsters may be captured by cultural traps and stay, however, will these youngsters who came to the intertidal zone and stayed make it or will they gradually die out?

This is a story about the descendants of Takasago Giyutai (Taiwan Indigenous volunteer units during the Pacific War) went back to the battle field of the Pacific War in Papua New Guinea following the footsteps of their grandfathers, and made a monument based on a legend of ‘Amis people who believe the soul would return home by taking the wings of a certain kind of bird. The monument was build up at the Mission Hill in Wewak, where was a Japanese naval base during the War, there are two monuments, one of them was set up by the Japanese in 1969 and the other one was build up by the Australians afterwards. A monument is not only a way to memory the history, but also a cultural representation on the spiritual world, questioning that “do you believe the soul really have returned home by taking the wings?”

Amis Hip Hop documents how a group of young Amis men in A’tolan have blended influences from contemporary social and cultural life in Taiwan with their traditional practice of ritual dance performance in the village. Rooted in the Amis ethos of respect for male age-grade organization, matrilineal affiliation, intimacy with the ocean, and appreciation of joking relationships, these young men also blend in elements of foreign fashion in music and dance all while keeping with traditional village aesthetics. Through their performances, they represent a new image to both locals and outsiders, and actively construct their local identity as A’tolan Amis.

According to Indigenous elders, the process of standing up for tests to win the qualification to wear the feather headdress is a symbol of becoming a man (Tamdaw) for the Pangcah people of Taiwan. The process of qualification has changed over time in recent days due to the lost of traditional environment and lifestyle.

The scars made by colonization and lost of lands and power still hurt the heart of Pangcah people. This film reveals the perspective of three generations of Pangcah people as a way to share their stories and as a mean to examine this issue that Pangcah people face in this modern time.

10/6  10:00

Anais and Daisy meet a midwife, a dying profession, and have a new understand of life and death. Since then, they’ve chosen a birthing process that is differently from 99\% of the women in Taiwan.

Anais, an aromatherapist, lives a natural and holistic lifestyle and refuses modern medicine. At the local theater, she plays an expectant mother who is forced to have a C-section in order to deliver the baby during an auspicious time. On stage, she screams “Giving birth is not an illness, I don’t want a C-section!” But in real life Anais is faced with the possibility of having a C-section due to the baby’s malposition. Anais’ wish to have home birth gets slimmer and slimmer with time.

Daisy, a mother of two girls, welcomes a third baby with home birth. With many relatives and friends as witness, she births her first son. Sadly, three months later her son passes away from a rare disease. Through the valley of the shadow of death, she decides to becomes a doula and readies herself to welcome a new life once again.

10/8  18:10