Indigenous Film Festival
Film Title: Atayal (Taroko) Trail
Director: Chi You Ken
Length: 60 minutes
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Overview
ATAYAL, Inc. has joined as a sponsoring partner to assist MeGa Productions of Canada to produce a TV documentary project of historical significance. MeGa Productions hired an indigenous Taiwanese producer and director (Chi You Ken) to create the film, which was completed in April 2004.
This 1-hour TV documentary introduces the Atayal (Truku) tribe of Taiwan, focusing on the history and significance of the famous Jwei Lu mountain path. This is a very old path built by the Atayal tribal people that enabled them to cross the Central Mountain Range of Taiwan into the fertile valleys of their homeland. This road carried the Atayal spirit throughout the mountains. The path also saw much bloodshed and conflict when the Japanese occupied Taiwan and tried to pacify the mountain tribes. The documentary will explore the beauty and mystery of the Taroko area of Taiwan and reveal the Atayal tribe's contribution to Taiwanese history. This area is now known as the beautiful Taroko National Park.
Storyline
Before 1913, the Liwu River region, including Taroko, was mostly an unknown, mysterious place of unparalleled beauty. No one dared to explore this river or the surrounding area for fear of meeting up with members of the indigenous tribe that inhabited the area. The tribe, which called itself, Truku, would not hesitate to decapitate any intruder to prevent invasion into the land that had been passed down from its ancestors.
However, in 1914, Japanese colonialist forces initiated a war that drove the Truku tribe from its secluded, traditional lifestyle into the modern world. In 1930, the Japanese colonial government, for the purpose of assimilation, forced the Truku tribe to leave the land on which it had lived for 200 years. At the same time, it designated the area around the Liwu River as the site of a future national park. This is the origin of Taiwan's Taroko National Park. Since that time, there has been almost no trace of the Truku along the Liwu River.
Today, a small path once used by the Truku has been widened and paved into a mountain highway frequented by tour buses. Increasing numbers of tourists from all over the globe visit the now world-famous Taroko Gorge. But few people know the history of the road they travel on to reach this magnificent marble gorge. Its story is as amazing as the scenery.
Film Credits
Director - Chi You Ken (Dain Nadave Sawon Ges-amun)
Producer - Wendy Kang
Editor - Joann Chiang
Director of Photography - Jason Lee
Cameraman - Wen-Yang Chen
