TIEFF 2001

Kusum is an ordinary, 14-year-old Indian girl. She lives in Delhi, India, where she goes to school and wonders about her future—until she falls ill. She stops eating, isolates herself and suffers raving fits. ”Evil spirits have attacked the family,” says Bhagat, an old healer. Kusum’s family initially tries Western medicine, but then opts for traditional Indian spiritual healing. It

The Mosuo region lies in the mountainous Yunnan Province of China. The Mosuo people continue their practice of matriarchy and have big families. Traditionally, the people don’t have a marriage ceremony. If a man and a woman fall in love, they could just “tisese” that means being together without cohabitation. They don’t start a nuclear family, but stay with the

In 1999, the construction for the laying of the first optical fibre cable in South east Asia is now crossing Cambodia from the Thai border to the frontier with Vietnam. The cable is to link up with another running from Europe along Silk Road. The worksite provides employment opportunities for many Cambodians. Peasants with no land, demobilized solders and families

“There is nothing so strange in a strange land as the stranger who comes to visit it.”

Soon after dropping the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the American military began looking for an “appropriate” place to test its nuclear weapons. They chose the Marshall Islands—tiny atolls in the mid-Pacific-for a number of reasons. The United States had recently taken these islands from Japan, they were a long way from America and they were populated by a

A performance of the kris dance, a Balinese ceremonial dance drama in which the never-ending struggle between the witch and the dragon—the death-dealing and the life-protecting—as it is given in the village of Pagoetan from 1937-39. The dancers go into violent trance seizures and turn their kris (dagger) against their breats without injury. Consciousness is restored with incense and holy

According to the Yami (Tao) people of Orchid Island, evil spirits possess the sick. Because of this belief, the sick are seen as inauspicious, and are avoided. Many sick people become isolated and do not receive any form of medical care. This situation is particularly acute with people suffering chronic illness or among the elderly.

This is the story of Ching-Wen and his family.

The Tao people believe flying fish to be a gift bestowed by the heavens. In February or March when the flying fish arrive near the coast, the Tao tribal groups carries out “flying fish summoning ceremonies” to call the fish back to their shores: “Come on back flying fish. Come back to our bay. When you get here we’ll welcome

In Haiti, many poor families are forced to give away their children. The children then go to live and work for other families as unpaid servants. This film follows the children throughout their day as they do all the housework and also interviews them where they speak freely for the first time on camera. The film also interviews the “aunts”

Saltspring Island: close to a city, but full of magical, almost untouched places. A small town with a Saturday market. And in the middle of the island… trees, lots of trees. When chainsaws begin ripping through the early morning silence of Saltspring, residents confront logging trucks and face the threat of prison terms to stop land developers from logging this

Elmer Dyrøy lives in Oslo, but when January arrives, he becomes restless. He takes his backpack and travels to the island on the west coast where he grew up－and island without other people, without roads or a wharf. A portrait of a person with a different lifestyle.

Using the history of Taiwanese puppet theater as his starting point, the director cast his eye over the whole of Taiwan’s modern history, creating a documentary of epic proportions. He explored the different styles of the main schools of glove puppet theater(such as the Huang family of the Wu Chou Puppet Theater).

Qiu-yan lives in Tainan Guantian Village’s Fanzaitian town. Alizu is a spirit of that place. Qiu-yan must watch over of a whole family’s livelihood, while Alizu must protect the whole settlement’s peace and prosperity.

1+1+363=365 1= The game has finished. The crowd thunders out applause. The young ball players on the field smile, yell in excitement, and run about. Its fall of 1998 in Monterey and the players’ last game. 1= They are met at the airport by all sorts of media, dazzling lights, and a showy welcome parade. People pack the streets to…