Laha Mebow

Laha Mebow (Chinese: 陳潔瑤; pinyin: Chén Jiéyáo) is an Indigenous director in Taiwan. She is notable for directing the film Hang in There, Kids! for which she won two awards at the Taipei Film Festival. She is the first female Taiwanese aboriginal film director and TV producer.[1]

Laha Mebow
Native name
陳潔瑤
Born (1975-12-05) 5 December 1975
Nan'ao, Yilan, Taiwan
OccupationFilm director
NationalityRepublic of China
Alma materShih Hsin University

Life and career

Laha Mebow was born in 1975 in Nan-ao, Taiwan. She was raised in Taichung by her father who was a police officer and her mother who was a teacher. After graduating from Shih Hsin University with a degree in film she later joined Taiwan Indigenous Television where she learned more about her heritage and aboriginal culture.[1]

In 2011, Laha Mebow made her directorial debut with Finding Sayun, a film which focuses on the stories of contemporary Atayal people in Yilan looking back to the impact on their community during the Japanese colonial period and during and after the arrival of the KMT in Taiwan. She built its cast from mainly non-professional aboriginal actors and set it in her home village of Tyohemg in Yilan County. The film was released in 2011 to a mixed review by the Taipei Times but was well received by audiences.[2][3] A few years later in 2016 Mebow directed her second film Hang in There, Kids!, a coming of age story about three aboriginal kids growing up in a secluded tribe. The film was so well received that Taiwan's Ministry of Culture selected it as the country's entry into the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.[4] Although it failed to be nominated for the Academy Award, the film went on to win five categories at the Taipei Film Festival including Best Director and Best Narrative Feature.[5] She is also the director of the feature-length documentary film Ca fait si longtemps, which tracks interactions of Indigenous musicians from Taiwan and Kanak and settler musicians in New Caledonia.

References
  1. Zeng, Zhijun. "從都市到原鄉，從台灣到第三世界 ——《只要我長大》導演陳潔瑤／Laha Mebow的尋根旅程" [From Urban to Rural, From Taiwan to the Third World] (in Chinese). Fun Screen. Retrieved 18 November 2017.
  2. Ho, Yi (25 November 2011). "Movie review: Finding Sayun 不一樣的月光". Taipei Times. Retrieved 18 November 2017.
  3. "Finding Sayun" (in Chinese). Yahoo. Retrieved 18 November 2017.
  4. Frater, Patrick (22 September 2016). "Taiwan Takes Out 'Kids!' for Oscar Run". Variety. Retrieved 18 November 2017.
  5. Liao, George (17 July 2016). "'Lokah Laqi!' captures five titles at Taipei Film Festival". Taiwan News. Retrieved 18 November 2017.
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