We are proud to announce the 10th edition of the Taiwan International Ethnographic Film Festival (TIEFF), to be held in Taipei from October 4th to 8th in 2019. Founded in 2001, the biennial festival is Asia’s oldest and longest running international ethnographic film festival. For 18 years TIEFF has served to promote outstanding documentary films from around the world that are innovative, educational, and entertaining. These films, directed by both new and established filmmakers alike, all share a commitment to portraying stories and social practices from around the world in a culturally sensitive way. This year we selected thirty five films out of 1190 submissions (sent in from ninety nine countries). Those films are listed below. Please follow our Facebook page to be notified when the full program is posted to our website at TIEFF.ORG.
This year’s theme
This year’s theme, “Visions of Sovereignty,” explores our relationships with our land, our bodies, and with each other. Moving beyond traditional political-legal notions of the state, “Visions of Sovereignty” is inspired by the work of indigenous activists and scholars who have called into question the idea that sovereign entities are neatly bounded by clearly marked borders, and that everyone within those boundaries is equally beholden to the state. Instead they ask us to look at sovereignty as a process shaped by how we see our world and our unique place within it. Going back to Hobbes the state has long been thought of as a giant person, with the focus on the body’s head, occupied by a king or some other ruler. “Visions of Sovereignty” returns our gaze to the stories of the individual men and women who make up the body of the state, showing how they adapt to, challenge, and sometimes even change the very nature of sovereignty.