Mother Tongue Film Festival Screens Taiwanese Film
The Mountain
03/02/2021
With the support of the Ministry of Culture, Republic of China (Taiwan), Taiwan Academy of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office in the United States (TECRO) has collaborated with the Smithsonian’s Mother Tongue Film Festival to screen a Taiwanese film “The Mountain” from March 22 to April 4, 2021 via Eventive. A post-screening discussion with the filmmaker, Hung-En Su, will be livestreamed on YouTube on March 26. For more information please visit the website at https://mothertongue.si.edu/ or https://asia.si.edu/events-overview/films/?trumbaEmbed=view%3Dseries%26seriesid%3D1578686
“The Mountain” is a fascinating look at Taiwanese history through the life-history of the director’s grandfather that fits with the theme “The Healing Power of Storytelling” of this year’s film festival. It is the first time the festival has screened a Taiwanese film since it was launched in 2016.
For hundreds of years, Taiwan has been under different colonial rulers. The film tells the life story of the director Su’s grandfather, Teymu Teylong, a famous Truku elder hunter in Ciyakang village, Hualien, on the east coast of Taiwan. He was living through Japanese rule, as he farmed and hunted in the mountains. On some days, he would chant for young fallen souls lying in the village graveyard; on others, he would offer sacrifices to ancestral spirits before going on a hunt. His daily routines are contrasted with footage of indigenous peoples in the past who were “civilized” by different colonizers.
Depicting the unique tranquility of the landscape and life in its purest form, the film was shot on 16mm, and echoes the Indigenous Movement of today, highlighting its fight for survival as the Indigenous people call for rectification of their ancestral names. (E)
Enclosure: Still of “ the Mountain” and Banner of “Mother Tongue Film Festival”
