這是我們前些日子寄出的道歉信，給一位我們嚴重疏忽的導演的信。現在我們已經收到他的回信，他告訴我們，他也意想不到的成為了澳洲國際勞工影展的工作人員，除了歡迎我們去澳洲拜訪外，也邀請我們去參加澳洲的國際勞工影展。
作為一次對我們處理關係的檢討與反省（不論和紀錄片導演或者任何組織、人），我們將這封信放在這裡與大家分享，希望時時提醒我們自己尊重且認真的面對每一次的合作。
（以下為中英對照）
--
Dear Sandra,
Haven't seen you for a long time. How's everything?
There are so many things I need to tell you. But first of all please accept our apology for being so reckless on the film festival and your film. I can give you thousands of excuses in order to have your forgiveness. But I want to tell you what really happens during the past year and a half.
As you may or may not know, the Taiwan International Labor Film Festival (TILFF) is not something officially supported festival, but rather a festival initiated by fellow students and activists in Taiwan. Without much support from the government or any non-profit organizations, we have few resources and money to make everything the best but we had tried our best.
It was really a pity that we are not able to show Beneath the Black Skies during the festival. Even though we tried hard to finish the Chinese Mandarin subtitles during the festival, still we didn't make it onto the stage. We are really very sorry about this.
The past year and half was a very tough for me. I was under great expectations from film directors all over the world and at that time I was also facing a great change in my life that I had to make hard decisions. These personal issues make me hard to spare more time on making sure everything about the festival goes right.
It was also a long year for our working group. Each of us has to find balance between our work and the film festival. Some of us are union organizer fighting for labor rights and some of us are still students striving to graduate from college. Although it was a tough road, we managed to go through it and we are very glad that during the festival there are numerous responses from teachers, workers, and countless organizations. In addition to the great responses, they are also very eager to know more about us and the labor films.
After the film festival, we had a review on the film festival itself and on this working group. We figure out that we were too reckless in the film festival and we could have done better. Still, we are very eager to import more valuable films (either via film festival or commission with license) to promote labor issues in Taiwan. This is because Film Festival is something that is rather soft and different from most of the strike and rally that provides a very different energy to the society. In order to seriously deal with films, we really need an organization to do so. Thus, at the end of this June, YH (one of the staff from the film festival working group) and I established a studio, the TransMovement Studio.
The reason we had this studio is that we had notice the films we had shown are great inspiration to activists and the public while the current situation of Taiwan labor is pretty tough. With this studio, we're hoping to continue generate more inspirations among people. We're hoping that with more connection to the international society, we can bring in more precious experiences and solidarity to Taiwan.
The main purpose of having this studio is that we want to bring in more films and books that are useful and inspiring to the activists in Taiwan. To begin with, we have been asking the directors from TILFF for another agreement. This agreement will give us permission on licensing and reproduction, that is to enable us to translate, reproduce, sell, promote and distribute their films in Taiwan. And so far most of the directors have agreed on this, and are willing to sign the new agreement.
It was our fault that we didn't make your film shown in the festival. Therefore it will be very rude for us to simply ask you for another agreement on giving us license to reproduce your film in Taiwan. If it's okay with you, we want to visit you personally to show our upmost apology and bring you the Chinese version DVD as we've promised. And perhaps talk about some possible way we can work together in the future.
Start from this October, YH and I are going to visit Australia for one year, hoping that through this one-year trip, we can meet more documentary directors, reach more local activists, and bring in more coordination on documentaries and movements. We're now planning our trip. However, we have no idea where can we reach these film directors and activists. Can you give us some suggestions? We will start from western Australia, and then move to Adelaide or Sydney around December, then heading to Brisbane around May or June.
The reason we want to visit Australia is because we found this country very different. As we were taught to know the world through a north-hemisphere point of view, it is sad to say that we learn very few about south hemisphere. However, Australia is a country that is crucial to the world because it provides all kinds of export goods to many countries. As a citizen of the global village, it is important for us to know which role we're in and how others work in this capitalism system. Especially when media in Taiwan only bombard us with useless information, we think it is rather important for us to bring in things from different point of view.
Beneath the Black Skies gives us a great glance about the mining industry and the workers' movement in Australia. There was a time when mining was prosperous in Taiwan but seldom do people know much about mining culture or past labor movement history. In addition, Australia in a way is highly-connected to Taiwan because Australia has the largest mine industry in the world that exports all kinds of mining, including Uraniam. Recently there are several gatherings and rallies calling for no nuke in Taiwan. This is because after the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant Incident last March, the public awareness about nuclear power plants in Taiwan was generated. People are interested in knowing more about nuclear power and Uraniam but there are not much information about this issue.
I was in Brisbane for three months in 2010. It was a great experience and I notice there are things we need to learn from Australia. We want to know more about fair trade and premaculture in Australia. We want to learn more about Aussie philosophy. We want to see if Australia students are same as us in Taiwan struggling for higher education and student loan. We want to know how come there are so many markets every weekend around every city. We believe that we can find some answers to these questions when we spend more time on this land. We really want to learn from you.
During this one-year trip, we hope we can dig out films and books related to issues such as labor, education, economy, environmental protection, fair trade, premaculture, organic, sex and gender, creative industry and anything about activist or social movement.
It is a long letter, but I hope I have let you know what had happened last year. And we are terribly sorry about missing you in the film festival. But still, we are hoping to cooperate with you in the future.
Hoping to hear from you soon.
sincerely,
Catta and YH
--
親愛的桑德拉，
好久不見，一切還好嗎？
我有很多事情要告訴你。首先，請接受我們的道歉，我們在影展期間如此魯莽地對待你和你的電影。為了請求你的寬恕，我可以告訴你千萬個藉口。但我想誠實的向你交代，在過去一年半的時間到底發生了什麼事。
正如你可能知道或者不知道的，台灣國際勞工影展（TILFF）並不是官方支持的活動，而是由台灣的學生和運動者發起的影展，在沒有政府或非營利組織的支持下，我們的資源和資金是相當稀少的，雖然很難做到完美，但我們也盡了最大的努力。
遺憾的是，我們最終無法在影展期間播映《黑色天空下》 。即使我們在影展期間花費許多心力完成了影片的中文字幕，卻仍無法及時趕上播映。我們真的很抱歉。
這一年半對我來說是非常艱難的日子。我們肩負來自世界各地導演的期待，但同時我的生活也面臨巨大的變化，我面臨許多艱難的抉擇，這些私人的問題，讓我很難騰出更多時間，來確保影展的一切順利進行。
對於影展工作小組來說，這是個漫長的一年。我們每個人都花費許多努力取得自身工作和影展之間的平衡。影展小組裡面有些成員是爭取勞工權益的工會組織者，有些人則是即將畢業的大學生。雖然影展籌備過程相當艱難，我們也都設法走過了。我們很高興在影展期間，許多的教師、工人，及無數的組織都給予影展熱烈迴響。在這些迴響之餘，他們也迫切希望認識我們以及這些關於勞工的影片。
影展結束後，針對影展本身和影展工作小組做出檢討。我們認為自己在籌辦影展的時候實在太粗糙了，這些工作應該做的更好，未來我們還希望繼續引進影片（無論是透過影展或代理的模式）促進台灣的勞工問題。因為我們發現影展是一種相對軟性的活動，和以往的罷工和抗議集會有所不同，他提供社會一個非常新的想像和能量。未來我們將更認真地投入影像工作，為此我們需要一個正式的組織。在今年六月底，奕翰和我（其中兩個影展工作小組的成員）建立了一個工作室，袋鼠文化工作室。
即使目前台灣勞工的狀況是如此艱難，我們也感受到影展如何觸動運動者和一般大眾，我們決定成立工作室。在此之後，我們將繼續刺激人們的想像，與國際社會建立更多的連接，把更多寶貴的經驗和合作帶回台灣。
這個工作室的主要目的，是把更多有用且具有啟發性的影像和書籍，帶回來給台灣的運動者。所以，我們先從台灣國際勞工影展聯繫過的導演開始，詢問他們是否能夠簽署新的合約。這個合約將允許我們在台灣翻譯、重製、銷售，以及推廣他們的影片。到目前為止，大部分的導演都已經同意，並願意簽署新的合約。
沒能讓你的影片在影展上放映是我們的疏失，因此，如果我們就這樣要求你授權給我們代理你的影片，是很不禮貌的。 如果可以的話，我們希望親自去拜訪您，正式的向您道歉，並且奉上我們在影展時承諾的中文版DVD，同時我們也許可以討論未來的合作機會。
今年十月開始，奕翰和我會去澳洲一年。希望透過這一年的旅程拜訪更多的紀錄片導演，認識更多當地的運動者，並且收集更多的紀錄片和運動資訊。我們正在規劃我們的行程，但我們不知道我們從哪裡可以認識導演和運動者。能不能請你給我們一些建議？我們將從澳洲西部開始旅行，然後十二月左右移動到阿德萊德和雪梨，在五月或六月前往布里斯本。
決定前往澳洲是因為我們發現這個國家很不一樣，過去我們被教導以北半球的角度來看事情，這很遺憾地讓我們鮮少認識南半球的事物。然而，澳州卻是一個對世界來說至關重要的國家，他出口各項重要的礦產、物料、食品，作為地球村的公民，我們需要認識這個資本主義制度如何運作，並要確立我們所扮演的角色。當台灣媒體不停的用垃圾新聞轟炸我們，我們認為從不同的角度來看事情是更為重要的。
黑色天空下這部影片，讓我們看見澳洲的採礦業和工人運動。過去也曾經有一段時間，台灣的礦業相當蓬勃，但很少人知道礦場文化或過去的勞工運動歷史。此外，澳州某種程度上與台灣有高度關連，因為澳州是最大的礦產國家，輸出各種礦物，包括鈾礦。近來在台灣有一些集會遊行，就是呼籲台灣停止繼續核能。這是因為去年三月的福島核電廠事故之後，大眾開始意識到台灣核電狀況，人們有希望弄清楚有關核電和鈾礦的事，但卻沒有辦法得到太多相關訊息。
2010年，我在布里斯本待了三個月，那是一個很棒的經驗，我發現很多事情要跟澳洲學習，我們想知道更多澳洲公平貿易和樸門農業的狀況，我們希望了解更多澳洲人的生活哲學。我們想知道，澳州的學生是否和我們一樣，在台灣的高等教育和學生貸款中掙扎，我們想知道，澳洲怎麼會有這麼多市集，而且幾乎每個城市的每個週末都有。 我們相信，當我們花更多的時間在這片土地上，我們就可以找到這些問題的答案。 我們是真的想向你們學習。
在這一年的旅程，我們希望能找到更多影像和書籍，關於勞動、教育、經濟、環保、公平貿易、樸門農業、有機、性和性別、創意產業，以及任何與運動者或社會運動有關的事物。
雖然這是一封很長的信，但還是希望讓你了解過去一年發生了什麼事。影展錯過了你的影片，我們真的非常抱歉。但是，我們依然期盼未來能夠與你合作。
期待您的回信。
真誠的，
于萱和奕翰
