Taiwan Docs

A rainy night, the camera looks into a room through the wet windowpane. A woman sits by a desk and writes. It’s the filmmaker, living in a dark and cold stone-paved town far from her homeland in Taiwan. The scene shifts to Keelung, in Taiwan. The brilliant green of the rice paddies and gently sloping white paths through the rolling hills hurt the eyes. The filmmaker’s grandparents worked in gold mines under the Japanese colonization and suffered great hardships. Her grandmother unravels her memories, leafing through photographs. Meanwhile, the French-speaking son of a Chinese man who arrived in France as a coal mine worker one century ago speaks about their life. The film captures the emotions of wanderers caught between nations and history. Dedicated to Robert Kramer, who was a visiting lecturer at the filmmaker’s school.

source: http://www.yidff.jp/2001/cat043/01c072-e.html