Planet In Focus - Our Planet, Your Focus, Our Festival

Three diverse views of Chinese life are revealed in three exceptional films playing this year at Planet in Focus: International Environmental Film & Video Festival. These films span different genres and successfully showcase the stories of people, communities and cultures not often represented in mainstream Chinese film.

The Sage Hunter is a children’s feature length drama based on the best selling true story of an indigenous Paiwanese boy on the island of Taiwan named Sakinu, who is deeply committed to maintaining his environment and his family’s ancient way of life. The film intimately portrays Sakinu’s childhood, family and his fight to prevent the destruction of his community by the building of a highway through Paiwanese sacred land. Determined to protect their land and their heritage, Sakinu is elected by the community to journey to the capital city of Taipei, to convince the authorities to change their minds about the planned development. Starring Sakinu, who is now an adult forest ranger and famous throughout Taiwan and directed by acclaimed filmmaker Tony Cheung, this humorous and uplifting film is sure to entertain, educate and inspire children of all ages.

Similarly, Travels by Tricycle is a fascinating and fabulist documentary about 74-year-old Wang Yimin, who cycles across China on a self-built tricycle trailer with his 98-year-old mother, Mama, in the back. Though aged, she has yearned to see China, but never had the opportunity to leave China’s Northern region. Wang pedals along busy highways, up steep dirt hillsides, through thick rain-storms and into crowded markets borne by the bonds of filial devotion. Director Wang Dongdong has created a film that is sure to win the hearts and minds of its audience.

Lastly, A Big Lake (Vies Nouvelle) is a poignant documentary which follows a young man who lives in central China, on the banks of the Danin river. His home and community are gradually being flooded and displaced as a result of the building of Three Gorges Dam on the Yang-Tse River . Masterfully shot and meditative in style, the film reveals a way of life that is disappearing inch by inch. We soon realize that this story is being repeated among thousands of families affected by the building of the world’s biggest dam. Directors Li Ping Weng and Olivier Meys have directed a haunting tour de force.

PLANET IN FOCUS: International Environmental Film & Video Festival
September 28 - October 2, 2005
Tickets: 416.531.4689
Single ($10), student/senior ($8), opening night ($15), festival passes ($75)
Discounted block seats for groups available