In 1948, the General Assembly of the UN adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which called for the universal recognition of fundamental rights and freedoms of all human beings.
In the following 60 years, Israel, Palestine, the minefields of Cambodia, New York City and war-torn Afghanistan have been the "ground zeros" of the world, producing stories of destruction and survival that both dishearten and inspire.
Some of these stories will be revisited at the Canada Taiwan Human Rights Film Festival, which starts tonight at SPOT Taipei Film House (台北之家:光點電影院) and will also show in Hsinchu City and Kaohsiung County through June.
PHOTO: COURTESY OF THE CANADIAN TRADE OFFICE IN TAIPEI
The event was organized by the Canadian Trade Office in Taipei with curatorial assistance from the National Film Board of Canada, Taiwan Indigenous TV (台灣原住民族電視台) and the Public Television Service (公視). It will highlight the accomplishments and follies of humanity with a lineup of one fictional film and 13 documentaries from Canada and Taiwan. The movies will be grouped under themes ranging from Aboriginal movements and new immigrants to environmentalism and multiculturalism.
Aboriginal Rights Events in Taiwan (原運二、三事) and When Tribes Meet the Nation (當部落遇到國家) document Taiwan's Aboriginal rights movement. In a similar vein, Kanehsatake: 270 Years of Resistance is a powerful account of what has come to be known as the Oka Crisis. In the summer of 1990, the people from the Mohawk tribe stood up against the Quebec police and Canadian army to fight for their right to live on land that belonged to them and their ancestors.
Immigrants' rights are tackled in The Voyage to Happiness (幸福的地圖), which features interviews with female immigrant spouses in 14 Asian cities, including Taipei, Tokyo, Seoul and Ho Chi Minh City. The movie records their struggles to overcome cultural prejudice and earn basic rights.
PHOTO: COURTESY OF THE CANADIAN TRADE OFFICE IN TAIPEI
Just how deeply our prejudices are seated is revealed in Zero Tolerance, in which the lives of minority teenagers in the city of Montreal are portrayed as more difficult than their majority counterparts.
In There and Back, a teenage girl living in Canada learns to accept her double identity as a burden and a treasure after a two-month visit with her Iraqi father in Jordan. Director Paul Emile d'Entremont will hold a question-and-answer sessions after the screenings this weekend at SPOT.
The raging war between humans and nature is eloquently illustrated in Manufactured Landscapes, a documentary on Canadian artist Edward Burtynsky, who is known for photographing landscapes altered by factories, dams and scrap heaps. Following a trip by Burtynsky to China, the film reveals the rarely seen effects of the huge nation's industrial revolution, from the Three Gorges Dam to Shanghai's urban renewal plan. The Refugees of the Blue Planet takes a look at the little-known plight of environmental refugees who are displaced and forced to leave their traditional ways of life due to the degradation of the environment.
PHOTO: COURTESY OF THE CANADIAN TRADE OFFICE IN TAIPEI
When nature calls, Masana Izawa has followed the same routine for more than 50 years: heading out to the woods in Japan, dropping his pants and doing as bears do. “We survive by eating other living things. But you can give faeces back to nature so that organisms in the soil can decompose them,” the 74-year-old said. “This means you are giving life back. What could be a more sublime act?” “Fundo-shi” (“poop-soil master”) Izawa is something of a celebrity in Japan, publishing books, delivering lectures and appearing in a documentary. People flock to his “Poopland” and centuries-old wooden “Fundo-an” (“poop-soil house”) in
Jan 13 to Jan 19 Yang Jen-huang (楊仁煌) recalls being slapped by his father when he asked about their Sakizaya heritage, telling him to never mention it otherwise they’ll be killed. “Only then did I start learning about the Karewan Incident,” he tells Mayaw Kilang in “The social culture and ethnic identification of the Sakizaya” (撒奇萊雅族的社會文化與民族認定). “Many of our elders are reluctant to call themselves Sakizaya, and are accustomed to living in Amis (Pangcah) society. Therefore, it’s up to the younger generation to push for official recognition, because there’s still a taboo with the older people.” Although the Sakizaya became Taiwan’s 13th
Earlier this month, a Hong Kong ship, Shunxin-39, was identified as the ship that had cut telecom cables on the seabed north of Keelung. The ship, owned out of Hong Kong and variously described as registered in Cameroon (as Shunxin-39) and Tanzania (as Xinshun-39), was originally People’s Republic of China (PRC)-flagged, but changed registries in 2024, according to Maritime Executive magazine. The Financial Times published tracking data for the ship showing it crossing a number of undersea cables off northern Taiwan over the course of several days. The intent was clear. Shunxin-39, which according to the Taiwan Coast Guard was crewed
For anyone on board the train looking out the window, it must have been a strange sight. The same foreigner stood outside waving at them four different times within ten minutes, three times on the left and once on the right, his face getting redder and sweatier each time. At this unique location, it’s actually possible to beat the train up the mountain on foot, though only with extreme effort. For the average hiker, the Dulishan Trail is still a great place to get some exercise and see the train — at least once — as it makes its way