Taiwan International Ethnographic Film Festival 2007
Indigenous Voices
Taiwan International Ethnographic Film Festival (TIEFF) is the first biennial film festival in Asia that promotes outstanding documentary films made about cultures and ethnography. This year, TIEFF 2007 will be held in Taipei from September 28th to October 2nd.
TIEFF is a major event of Taiwan cultural activities and large audiences of filmgoers, teachers, and students are expected to attend this film festival. Organized by Taiwan Association of Visual Ethnography, a non-profit organization that makes great efforts in introducing ethnography to the public, and co-organized by the Institute of Ethnology, Academia Sinica, Taiwan, TIEFF is created for screening films and videos, as well as providing a forum for exchange and discussion. As every film that represents a certain culture is highly-esteemed and valuable, there is no competition section in TIEFF.
The central theme of TIEFF 2007 will be “Indigenous Voices.” In the emergence of anthropology, the indigenous peoples have always been the main subject of ethnographic films. These films portray their political system, economics, social structure, marriage system, medical treatment and religions. All these works are lively recordings of the indigenous peoples’ daily life. In the current development of ethnographic films, we have seen a strong trend, that is, the ones being filmed now take up the camera and tell their own story. This gives the indigenous people very different looks in their image, culture and the issues they dealt with.
By choosing “Indigenous Voices” as the central theme, TIEFF 2007 invites works made by indigenous peoples/communities worldwide and also works by the ethnographic professionals who concerns about the indigenous issues. By presenting the films made by the two groups, it is possible to observe the different perspectives chosen by the local people and the outsiders. TIEFF 2007 intends to present works made of various points of view and with diverse subjects, media strategies, forms and styles, in order to propose the possibility of more subtle and multi-layered dialogues. TIEFF 2007 will also invite famous ethnographic films for the “Retrospect” section on this theme.
In addition to the central theme section, TIEFF 2007 welcomes recently finished films, made within the past two years (2005-2007), with unlimited theme, to its “New Vision” section. We sincerely invite you and your work to TIEFF 2007.
HU, Tai-Li, Festival President LIN, Wen-Ling, Festival Director