The Taoyuan New Immigrants Hall launched a photography workshop that started its first course last Saturday (May 1). The photography workshop is launched for new immigrants, children of new immigrants, and migrant workers
The course invited Rina Tsou, a Taiwanese-Filipino filmmaker, to share how she tells her story in her film. Rina encourages new immigrants to capture the story of their lives by creating their videos.
Rina Tsou is a young, up-and-coming director in Taiwan. She has received many awards and nominations in local and international film festivals. Rina herself came from a cross-cultural family; her father is from Taiwan while her mother is from the Philippines. Growing up, Rina faced many challenges in life. These life experiences made Rina a heart-warming director, speaking up for migrant workers and herself.
"Photography is a tool to tell your own story"
As an introduction, the lecture showed two of Rina’s films in the beginning, which were Ching Mei’s Hands and The Horrible Thirty Me, My Father, and Richard the Tiger.
Ching Mei’s Hands is a film that depicts Ching Mei’s bittersweet life as a foreign spouse in Taiwan. Ching Mei’s faced a lot of hardship finding a job in Taiwan. However, her only choice is to face these hardships with a positive attitude.
The Horrible Thirty Me, My Father and Richard the Tiger is a very personal film. Rina combined old movie clips with daily dialogue with her parents. In the film, Rina expresses her deep longing for her father.
Rina explained a documentary can both tell a story and express emotions.
Many people in society are just like Ching Mei. They work effortlessly, but their voices are often neglected.
The photograph workshop aims to help new residents learn photography skills, and film their own stories.
“Each person has their own unique story”
Rina asked the participants to share what story do they want to share in their film.
Many people mentioned that they missed their home country, and hope to travel home. One mother shared that she was going to fly back to Brunei. But the coronavirus outbreak happened suddenly, and she miles away from her family. As days passed, the pandemic still went on, the idea of going back home became stronger and stronger. Therefore, the Bruneian mother wants to film her life in Taiwan, and send the video to her family in Brunei.
Another mother said she wanted to use images to document her child's growth. This mother is from Vietnam, but she often had to return to Vietnam because of her job. One day, when she returned home, she found that her son refused to sleep with her. She realized how fast children grow, and wanted to film her child's growth as a memory.
The mood of waiting for the outbreak to end makes the idea of going home even stronger. The mother wanted to photograph life in Taiwan and send it to her relatives far away
A mother shared that she wants to film the growing process of her children. She mentioned that children grow so fast.
Many participants were shy and thought their story was not worth mentioning. But as they shared their daily life experience, they were sharing a very unique story. Rina says that the most ordinary thing can still become a very meaningful story.
Rina mentioned, it is not necessary to have the best equipment to produce a film. People can record their own stories by just picking up their cellphone.
Deputy chief executive of Taoyuan New Immigrant Service Center, Zhang Yu-Ting said, "This course encourages new immigrants to capture their stories through video. Living in a foreign country is hard,
I hope this course can provide a platform for new immigrants to share their own stories and memories.」
