A community experience of 400 shows
Full Scene's community experience has been accumulated by running all over the island of Taiwan presenting documentary films.
Wu Yi-feng got into making documentaries because he was bad at math. In his third year of college, ignoring the objections of his family, he went from being a junior in business administration at Feng Chia University to being a sophomore film major at National Culture University, a move which sent his dad into a rage.
In 1988, Wu Yi-feng and a few of his good friends formed the Full Scenc Film/Video Studio. In the last seven years, they have made such serialized programs as "A Lamp Among the People," "Moon Children" and "Images of Life."
"Moon Children" was originally selected as material for a show to be aired over public television. But this "magnum opus" of more than 70 episodes laboriously filmed over two years was held up by administrative procedures at public television, which wanted to air it reduced to 44 minutes, in two segments.
But Wu Yi-feng felt that reduced to this length, the story would lose its sense of completeness. Even though he was willing to forego production fees and give them a third episode for free, public television would not agree. For a filmmaker, no circumstance is more discouraging than this.
Unable to let viewers see the pictures on television, Full Scene began looking for an alternative path. In September 1990, "Moon Children," which depicts the lives of white-haired, white-skinned albinos, whose eyes are sensitive to light, had its premier at the National Film Archives. The small theater of 70 seats was packed, and standing room was completely filled as well.
Many members of that audience asked Wu Yi-feng to visit their school or neighborhood and show the film. And the folks at Full Scene actually do take their videotape to campuses, community activity centers, temples, neighborhood groups, mothers' reading circles.... If someone invites them, be they ten, twenty or a few hundred people, they're sure to show up. In the past few years, at locales all over Taiwan, they have shown the film more than 400 times.
"The most important use of a documentary film is communication," says Wu Yi-feng. Its creation must "return to the immediate reality of people's lines."
Wu Yi-feng's personality, which colleagues describe as "impetuous," often causes him to wander right into his subject's world, and find himself incapable of pulling out.
In Hsintien, retired educator Li Wen-shu opened the China Children's Center. For the past 18 years, he has let children come there after school free of charge to read, write and play games, and Li also teaches them calligraphy.
Li's 30-year-old son had for many years been suffering from a condition in which his liver could not metabolize cooper ions. While Wu was filming Li, Li's son reached a critical condition several times, and he was in urgent need of a new liver. Wu helped them set up a press conference, and they succeeded in finding a kind-hearted donor. Nevertheless, the son passed away soon after the operation. Wu Yi-feng rushed to the hospital, held Li's hand and wept together with him. Watching through the camera's lens, the audience joins them in shedding tears.
Live at the scene of life
Wu Yi-feng is currently devoting all his energies to editing a series on senior citizens which the studio filmed two years ago. After two weeks of work, he had not spliced together five minutes of film. "Every time I look at it, I have to calm myself down," he says.
Because there are few helping hands, Full Scene radio and Full Scene studio often give each other mutual support. The radio station has gradually gotten on track. Wu Yi-feng, busy with post-production work, temporarily lets a few young people handle the broadcasts. They all understand they must live out the philosophy of "go out into the community, go out into the field."
Huang Shu-mei, who is responsible for community activities at the station, was a student of Wu Yi-feng's a the World College of Journalism and Communications. originally they had two classes a week, but because Wu was too busy, it was changed to four classes once every two weeks. Finally, he decided he should not be "misleading the youth" in this manner, so he told his students that whoever was interested in making films could come to his home on Saturday. Six students, including Huang Shu-mei, started going to his house every Saturday to watch and discuss movies. They continued this kind of class off and on for three years.
After she graduated, Huang Shu-mei stayed on at Full Scene to work. Her feeling of accomplishment in work comes from going out into the field and finding people who are worth reporting about.
After finishing the series "A Lamp Among the People," which featured autistic children and cerebral palsy sufferers, a group of disabled yet deeply vital young people, they wanted to report on some more "tranquil" folk. They wondered if there really were any of those people who voluntarily tended street lamps and swept the roads every day?
They settled on an area, and Huang Shu-mei started to go interview the neighborhood constables at district, rural township and township public service offices.
The neighborhood constables have a meeting at the crack of dawn and then spread out in all directions, taking a look at things. "Every day at five o'clock in the morning, I'd get out of bed and rush over to take part in the neighborhood constables' meeting. During the winters it was really cold, and it made me really mad at Wu Yi-feng," says Huang Shu-mei. Even the neighborhood constables doubted whether there were really any such people.
Originally, it was just a tentative idea, but to their surprise, in the Taipei suburb of Yungho, they really did find a 62-year-old gent named Chang Huo-hsiang. Every day around 4:50 in the morning you can see him along Anlo Street in Yungho," dressed in khaki shirt and trousers, clutching a broom and a dust pan, sweeping the road, or crouching down in the gutter, clearing out the garbage in the grates. He became the protagonist of the first installment of the series "Images of Life."
Now when preparing a program, Huang roams around all over in the very same manner. In the morning program for old people, she wants to let the elderly reminisce about the good old days, to open up their hearts, and share their secrets of longevity. One day at the break of dawn, she pedaled her bicycle to the Yungchi park in the vicinity of the station and looked around. She heard a group of old folks singing a song, and she walked over and struck up a conversation with them, introduced herself, and then invited them to be on her program. Through them she met an old person who could sing Beiguan-style Taiwanese opera who came to perform on the program and received a great response. "In the field, connections keep expanding wider and wider," she says.
Waiting for faithful devotees
The salaries that Full Scene is able to pay are not high. Step by step the staff have expanded to the present 14. Wu Yi-feng says, "They wouldn't leave even if I tried to kick them out." Even if they are hurting for money, they still can scrape together some time to give free filmmaking instructions to people who are interested in documentaries. According to Wu Yi-feng's way of thinking, we must pass a love for the land from one generation to the next.
Lin Hsiu-mei was originally a substitute teacher at Forest Elementary School, and after she had finished teaching, she would hang around, because she "liked this kind of culture." Now she is in charge of training the station's volunteer workers. One method of sponsoring the station, besides giving money, is to be a volunteer worker. The news has gotten out--about 200 people have registered as volunteers. They train volunteers to do sound-control engineering, and at the same time to listen to the program, and become familiar with the station's philosophy.
Lin Hsiu-mei explains, "Wu Yi-feng always says not to feel that people who hang out at Full Scene are better than everyone else. Certainly we shouldn't feel that there is a halo over Full Scene's head, or that we shoulder a huge responsibility. Everything comes back to the individual's decision."
Wu Yi-feng, who loves to play baseball, has one great wish--to coach a neighborhood baseball team of young people. He says that if you want to understand the youth, you have to look at things from the same angle, and play with them. Recently they have been playing baseball every day in a nearby school playground from five until seven in the morning. The children's mothers all think it so strange: "They can get up so early in the morning if they're going to play ball!"
Life can be very easy--playing a ball game, jabbering away at the gates of a temple, or cooling off in the shade of a tree. Full Scene has built a "little alleyway temple" radio station. Now they are waiting for some faithful devotees to come make themselves at home, whenever they have the time.
[Picture Caption]
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(left and right) The crowded "paradise" of Taipei is lacking in human relationships. The fact is we're not looking for much, just a corner in which to sit and chat. (right photo by Hsueh Chi-kuang)
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Children come to the radio station to hear a teacher tell a story. Their giggles fill the station and get broadcast out to the world. Listeners are also infected by the merriment of the little ones.
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The Full Scene studio likes to film ordinary folk. "Uncle Ah Shui." at first just liked to go hiking in the mountains for exercise. Now he goes into the mountains to fix the paths. (courtesy of Full Scene Film/Video Studio)
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A group of mothers who live in the Taipei suburb of Tienmu come to the station to introduce their community organization. Usually when they are together, they hold reading sessions or serve as guides on the hiking trails in the Chihshanyen area.
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By means of a radio station and a film studio, Wu Yi-feng (second row, right) and this group of caring people are spreading the seeds of community concern.