DC Environmental Film Festival

Beyond Beauty: Taiwan from Above + The Story of the Weeping Camel (Curated by Tom Vick)

Expired March 28, 2022 3:45 AM
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Curated by Tom Vick, Curator of Film at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Asian Art

Depicting a gorgeous bird’s-eye view of Taiwan’s stunning natural landscape, this film set box office records in Taiwan and won the Best Documentary award at the 2013 Golden Horse Awards. The film proves why the Portuguese explorers who landed on the island in the 1500s immediately named it ilha formosa (beautiful island). But the documentary’s wonderful aerial photography also carries a message about how the island’s landscape is being mistreated. The beauty of Taiwan’s untouched areas is contrasted with images of mountainsides eroded by development and by large-scale farming and coastlines polluted by industry. As director Chi Po-lin said, “I am not here to judge, because I understand there is a price to pay to live the way we do right now. But each of us must stop pretending that all this destruction is not happening.”

  • Year
    2013
  • Runtime
    93 minutes
  • Country
    Taiwan
  • Director
    Chi Po-lin