A Discussion on the Narrative Strategy and Aesthetic Experience of Documentary Films in Taiwan - Taking Taiwan Public Television Service’s Documentaries of Education Reform Series-“Mirror, Mirror on the Wall” and “Nine Lives” as Examples

A Discussion on the Narrative Strategy and Aesthetic Experience of Documentary Films in Taiwan - Taking Taiwan Public Television Service’s Documentaries of Education Reform Series-“Mirror, Mirror on the Wall” and “Nine Lives” as Examples
Weitsy Wang

Abstract

On April 10th, 1994, the first mass demonstration demanding educational reform marched through the streets of Taipei. The movement was later known as “The 410 Demonstration for Education Reform”. A decade later, Taiwan Public Television Service’s View Point program called on in-house directors and independent filmmakers to produce a series of documentaries on education reform, i.e. the Documentaries of Education Reform series. A total of twelve documentaries were made featuring issues pertaining to education reform, including ability grouping in junior high schools, spoon-fed education, corporal punishment, hair regulation, teaching approaches, a school principal’s idea of how to orun a school, student teacher relationship, and teaching English to preschool children. They are Cry Out Loud, Don’t Cry Principal, Fairy Tale Theater, People with Nine Lives, Mirror, Mirror on the Wall, There’s Light on the Roof, Hsia Hsia’s Contact Book, Carry Your Head to School, I Love Little Devils, Teacher, and Finding Sheep in New Zealand. From subject matter to filming approach, from aesthetic technique to documentary ethics, these films sparked fierce debate between parents, students, education professionals and the media to the extent questioning the essence of documentaries.

This essay takes a rare view of the diversity and rich variety of the aesthetics of Taiwan’s documentary films to re-evaluate the PTS Documentaries of Education Reform series. Critical segments are selected from a number of films to explore how documentary film styles such as “the performative mode”, “the poetic mode”, and “the expository mode” are applied and handled in the series. Innovative narrative strategies including the use of... [continues]

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