‘By introducing my culture to someone else, I learnt to understand it again somehow’: An interview with filmmaker Laha Mebow

Abstract

As the first indigenous woman to achieve prominence as a filmmaker in Taiwan, Laha Mebow occupies an important place in the island’s film culture. Her first feature, 'Finding Sayun' (2011), depicts a village community from Mebow’s own tribe, the Atayal, offering a contemporary response to the 1943 Japanese propaganda movie 'Sayon's Bell'. Her second feature, 'Lokah Laqi' (2016), explores the troubled backgrounds of a group of kids growing up in a tribal village, and earned Mebow widespread recognition and awards. Her most recent film, 'Ca fait si longtemps' (2017), is a documentary shot in New Caledonia, tracking the collaboration of Taiwanese musicians Suming Rupi and Baobu Badulu with local practitioners, and reflecting on Mebow’s personal connection to the Kanak people. Topics discussed by Mebow in this interview include the dynamics of working within indigenous communities as a semi-outsider, the methods she has developed for training and directing non-professional actors, questions of subjectivity in documentary, and her interest in exploring the connections between Austronesian peoples in Taiwan, New Caledonia, and New Zealand / Aotearoa.