Returning Souls
We are pleased to announce the screening of Hu Tai-li's film Return Souls (2012).
The Chair of Taiwan Studies at IIAS and Leiden University, Tze-lan Sang, will briefly introduce the movie. After the screening, there will be time for discussion.
The film screening will take place on Monday, 2 December, in the Herta Mohr building, room 0.28, from 16:00 to 18:00 hrs.
Please fill out the form in the column on the right of this page to attend the film screening.
In the most famous ancestral house of the matrilineal Amis tribe in Taiwan, the carved pillars told legends, such as the great flood, the glowing girl, the descending shaman sent by the Mother Sun, and a father-killing headhunting event. After a strong typhoon toppled the house 40 years ago, the pillars were moved to the Institute of Ethnology Museum at Academia Sinica. Recently, young villagers, with assistance from female shamans, tried to communicate with the ancestral spirits in the pillars. They eventually decided to bring the ancestral souls rather than the pillars back to the village and began reconstructing the house. Faced with modern-day realities such as the influence of western religions, national land policy, and clan rivalries, the young people's dream for cultural revitalization must overcome significant challenges.
Director Hu Tai-Li
Hu Tai-li was a renowned documentary filmmaker, film festival programmer, and anthropologist in Taiwan. She was a research fellow and director at the Institute of Ethnology, Academia Sinica, as well as a concurrent professor at the Institute of Anthropology, National Tsing Hua University. She was also the president of the Taiwan International Ethnographic Film Festival. She has directed and produced nine documentary films (The Return of Gods and Ancestors, Songs of Pasta’ay, Voices of Orchid Island, Passing Through My Mother-in-law’s Village, Sounds of Love and Sorrow, Encountering Jean Rouch, Stone Dream, After Passing, and Returning Souls).
Programme
16:00 - Introduction
16:05 – Film screening
17:30 – Discussion led by Tze-lan Sang, Michigan State University; Chair of Taiwan Studies at Leiden University and IIAS
18:00 – end
