Ta’ang
more info: www.cinematek.be
Courtisane is een platform voor film en audiovisuele kunsten. In de vorm van een jaarlijks festival, filmvertoningen, gesprekken en publicaties onderzoeken we de relaties tussen beeld en wereld, esthetiek en politiek, experiment en engagement.
Courtisane is a platform for film and audiovisual arts. Through a yearly festival, film screenings, talks and publications, we research the relations between image and world, aesthetics and politics, experiment and engagement.
more info: www.cinematek.be
The Ta’ang, a Burmese ethnic minority, are caught between a civil war and the chinese border. Since early 2015, heavy fights have forced thousands of children, women and older people on an exodus across the border, into China. Ta’ang follows the daily life of these refugees, forced to leave their home but hoping to return soon.
“This film was shot in China’s Yunnan Province near the border with the Kokang region of neighbouring Myanmar. Following civil war in Kokang province, around 100,000 ethnic Ta Ang, Han, Dai and Burmese took refuge in the small river valleys of the Sino-Myanmar border region. These refugees have been surviving on the meagre food supplies they brought with them, gifts from civil society groups, or food bought from local Chinese merchants with whatever cash they still have.
We filmed life in the two refugee camps of Maidihe and Chachang, which were sheltering around 4000 and 2000 refugees respectively. Living conditions and camp locations are constantly changing due to overcrowding, with many people camping by the roadside. Many refugees are staying with relatives or friends in the small villages along the border. Most of them are doing odd jobs for local Chinese farmers, to make enough money to get by, usually helping with the sugar-cane harvest. We filmed several Ta Ang and Dai women living in Chachang camp, including Jin Xiaoman and Jin Xiaoda who had come across the border into China with their children and old folk from their villages.” (WB)