Returning Souls

Streaming video - 2014

The carved pillars of the matrilineal Amis tribe's famed ancestral house recount tribal legends such as The Great Flood and The Glowing Girl, and are home to the ancestral spirits of the Amis. The pillars, however, were removed from the village for exhibition in Taiwan's Institute of Ethnology Museum after a typhoon toppled the house 40 years ago. This film follows a group of young Amis who seek to restore their people's connection with their ancestors. Working with female shamans, the Amis are successful in reconstructing the ancestral house. Their efforts for cultural revitalization, however, are complicated by the influence of western religions, national land policy and local politics. This documentary interweaves reality ...and legends in its presentation of a unique case of repatriation. more