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Taiwan: The Generation After Martial Law

This program illustrates how video activists have developed sophisticated use of small format video, with poetic and powerful imagery, complex mixes of sounds and scores and an effective editing style that belies the urgency under which it is being made. The video movement in Taiwan has made successful use of home cassette distribution, via both mail and street vendors. The Green Team collective has pioneered in this effort with over 100 titles in distribution, documenting the struggles of farmers, students, workers and environmentalists.

Taiwan: The Generation After Martial Law

7.0 1990
Daba - Portrait of a Na Shaman

After more than a quarter of a century without any form of religious ceremony, the Na, an ethnic group living on the Himalayan plateau, began openly practising their religion again in the early 1990s. Their priests are called daba. Among the few old shamans who are still living today, Dafa Luzo is the most remarkable. As the main character in the film, we see him looking after his farm and his family, as well as performing rituals to expel all unclean spirits and demons and honour the ancestors. His main worry, and his greatest hope, is to make sure his knowledge is safely handed down to the next generation.

Daba - Portrait of a Na Shaman

NR 1999
Deep Mountain Boatman

The second in Wang Haibing’s ‘Three Families’ trilogy (which also includes 1991’s Northern Tibetan Family and 2000’s Days in the Mountains) -- all of which won the Sichuan International TV Festival “Golden Panda” award in their years of premiere. This is the story of an ordinary farmer in the mountainous Xuanhan County, Sichuan Province, a place called Fankuai. The river flowing through Fankuai is called Qianhe, and upstream of the Qianhe River is the town of Bailixia. There is no road or electricity in the Bailixia area; and the only means of transportation is boats. The mountain people use the boat to carry their goods and freight their living supplies. Nowadays, though, a new road leads up to the mountain area — the boatmen’s livelihood may end with the opening of this road, and so the boatman and his family are faced with new choices.

Deep Mountain Boatman

NR 1993
Six Point Nine

At 6 AM in LA, a man gets the newspaper, shaves, brushes, flosses, and reads. A headline reads, ”Tenants want quake safety.” In the next apartment, a clock radio blares Latin music, waking a young couple and their baby. They argue about the music, then tickle, laugh, and return to bed. As the man sits, the couple’s bedstead bangs against the wall, causing plaster to fall, medicines to spill, the toothbrush glass to shatter, and car alarms to go off. Is it good sex or a 6.9 earthquake?

Six Point Nine

10.0 1991
No. 16 Barkhor South Street

No.16, Barkhor Street is an old courtyard in the heart of Lhasa and the site of the office of the Barkhor Neighborhood Committee. This masterful cinema verité documentary, the landmark work in the history of independent documentaries about Tibet, provides is a photographic study of rich insight into the basic workings of government in Tibet as it that follows the local Party Secretary, Deputy Director, Director for Women’s Affairs, and Community Policeman, among others, as they implement official policies and manage neighborhood affairs.

No. 16 Barkhor South Street

NR 1996
Screen (I)

Three-channel installation. (Meant to displayed on three 'faux walls' covered by wallpaper, each wall fitted with a 14-inch TV screen hidden behind a double-sided mirror with frame, which functions like a mirror reflecting the videos' viewers' faces when the videos show black screens intermittently.) The three videos were recorded without sound at the artist's home and the following contents are displayed throughout: 1) A breath directed towards a mirror, which blurs it, followed by a wiping clean of the mirror surface; 2) An opening up of a mouth followed by a sticking out of the tongue; 3) A close-up view of an eye-roll.

Screen (I)

NR 1996