The Return of Gods and Ancestors: Paiwan Five Year Ceremony

The Return of Gods and Ancestors: Paiwan Five Year Ceremony (1985)

神祖之靈歸來：排灣族五年祭

The Return of Gods and Ancestors is the first locally made ethnographic film in Taiwan. The film, captured with a hand-cranked Bell & Howell 16 mm camera, documents the most magnificent five-year ceremony in Paiwan tribe. During the festival, the Paiwan people expect to receive blessings of the gods and ancestors by piercing rattan balls with extended bamboo poles; however, they also try to prevent any harm caused by evil spirits. The Paiwan five year ceremony is not only the reunion of the dead and the living, but a meeting of the old and the new.

Date of release
1985-01-01
Runtime
35m
Genres
Documentary
Director
Hu Tai-Li

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