Kawut Na Cinat’Kelang
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.
Directors
Lin Chien-Hsiang
Lin Chien-Hsiang, Han, is a documentary filmmaker and the host of Together Studio. He graduated from Tainan National College of the Arts with a Master of sound and image studies in 2003. Having worked in the documentary field for more than 20 years, Lin’s focus has always been the indigenous people, including ecological issues, social movements, local culture, and the disadvantaged groups.
Wan Pei-Chyi
Graduated from National Taiwan University and Tainan National College of the Arts with the Master of Sound and Image Studies in 2003. Because of some early years social work about Taiwan indigenous people, she started work as a researcher, director of documentaries. Ever since then she focused the attention on the issue of ethnicity, diaspora, and the neglected historical gap. She just finished the film Kung Fu Girls before the end of 2014, supported by The Asian Pitch.