Taiwan Docs

Spanning over a period of 10 years, this film is about a group of workers who stood up in protest against an illegal factory shutdown. In May 1992, Chin-Shiang Textile employees suffered various assaults by the company from salary cuts, to unexplained demotion, to the sudden shutdown of the factory. From Reticence to picketing the factory, the dispute escalated to public demonstrations and even the active involvement and guidance of professionals from Taiwan’s Worker’s Movement. It was the first time in Taiwan’s history where laborers appealed to the Presidential Office as well as the Executive Branch of the government for help. This group of grass root laborers from Southern Taiwan set the mode and a precedent of Taiwan’s labor disputes. The process of their fight wrote down the first page in the history of Taiwan’s labor movement. Ten years later, Director A-kai returns with a camera to film the same laborers. Without giving them prior notification, what he caught on film were their genuine sentiments of nostalgia and pleasant surprise. Ten years ago, they rallied and fought bravely on the streets for their rights. Ten years later, they ask only for the opportunity to keep a job so they could survive and feed themselves. They no longer have the courage to rally and protest. According to Pei Wen-Shiang: “In the last ten years, the rights and dignity of the common laborer have not improved. Foreign laborers have corroded the chances of survival for the Taiwanese laborer. “For those workers, experiences from a decade before, can only be re-lived in their memories. Director A-kai recounts their experience through this documentary film. In the film, the presence of Lo Shin-jie's (A-kai) camera demonstrated the power of the media to monitor and challenge public authority by recording and revealing the incompetence of Taiwan's government officials.

Source: Taiwan Int'l Documentary Festival