The Taiwan International Ethnographic Film Festival (TIEFF) is the first festival of its kind in Taiwan. Over the years, ethnographic film festivals all over the world have performed an important educational role in society by promoting high quality ethnographic films to the general public. In establishing TIEFF, the festival committee hope to foster a deeper understanding of diverse cultures through the mediums of images and sound. We hope that such a festival will encourage the constructive interaction between cultures and reflection on Taiwan’s own cultural identity.
The First Taiwan International Ethnographic Film Festival is being organized by the Taiwan Association of Visual Ethnography, with the assistance of the Museum of the Institute of Ethnology, Academia Sinica. The festival will take place on Sept. 21-25, 2001. During this period, 34 films from 22 countries will be screened. The main theme of the festival is “2001 Island Odyssey,” which will take audiences on a journey transcending space and time. It aims to use the medium of audio-visual technology to explore the development of island culture and to develop bonds between islands around the world.
Apart from many films dealing with islands, the festival selection committee have also included many recently completed cultural documentaries in the festival’s program. In the 1st TIEFF, the films will be divided into the following 5 categories: Retrospective, Orchid Island in Focus, Island Odyssey–International, Island Odyssey–Domestic, and New Vision.
The TIEFF is a biennial festival. Following the festival this year, we are going to select some films and organize to run traveling festival all over Taiwan through 2002. The 2nd TIEFF has been scheduled for 2003.