New Documentary Reclaims the Past

The films are a collection of Latin titles, including films made by Colombian director Sergio Cabrera, and issues documentaries — “The Garden,” “South of the Border,” “Countdown to Zero.”

And then there’s “Voices in the Clouds.”

This documentary — “a film practically birthed at OLA Fest 5 years ago,” says festival organizer Nelson Betancourt — is about one man’s search for his Taiwanese roots. Orlando filmmaker Aaron Hose spent years documenting former Orlandoan Tony Coolidge‘s search for the indigenous heritage his mother hid from him all his life.

“Tony was doing things around town to make people aware that Taiwan was not just Chinese, that there were these tribes that were there before the Han Chinese came and took over the culture,” says Hose. “His mother, who had died, had never told him she was from the Atayal tribe. We thought ‘There’s a documentary in that story.'”

Hose, 35, is a Valencia Community College and University of Central Florida film program alumnus who works in video production at UCF. He’s a native of Aruba, “and the multicultural aspect of Tony’s story appealed to me, this search he and his brother went on to find out who their people were.”

“Voices in the Clouds” follows Coolidge and his brother on a visit to the mountains of Taiwan, once called Formosa, where they visit remnants of the 14 recognized tribes that predate the Chinese presence on the island. They are a tiny, obscure and discriminated against minority, almost invisible in the culture at large.

“We showed this film at the San Diego Asian Film Festival, and there were natives of Taiwan who came up to us afterward and said, ‘I had no idea there were these other cultures on the island,'” Hose says. “Their parents never told them and the tribal people have done so much to assimilate.”

Hose’s film depicts perhaps the last generation of members of one tribe who wear facial tattoos and speak a native dialect. “The songs and dance of these tribes are passed down, but there’s still a lot of traditions that are fading away.”

Hose and his crew faced a double layer of language barriers, not speaking either Mandarin Chinese or the language of the Atayal. “We had to have translators, to know what footage we were actually getting, what people were saying in the interviews. Then we had to have more translators here to tell us what we’d gotten so that we could pull the story out of the footage.”

“Voices in the Clouds” will be shown at 7:30 p.m. Feb. 12 at Premiere Cinemas; 2 p.m. Feb. 13 at Premiere Cinemas.

Among the other titles at OLA Fest 2011:

‘South of the Border’

✭✭✭ (2010)

Oliver Stone‘s documentary about his meetings with assorted leaders of Central and South America was controversial for its almost fawning take on people like Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez, but it is still a fascinating alternative view of folks who don’t come off as the caricatures they’re sometimes made out to be on American TV news. Showing: Feb. 13 at 6 p.m., Premiere Cinemas

‘The Garden’

✭✭✭ (2008)

This award-winning documentary is about an activist’s efforts to save a 14-acre community garden in the middle of Los Angeles. Showing: Feb. 13 at 4 p.m., Premiere Cinemas

‘Countdown to Zero’

✭✭1/2 (2010)

Just when you thought it was safe to stop worrying so much about nuclear weapons, here’s a sobering if somewhat fussy, unfocused and overly star-studded reminder of just how dangerous the world is becoming as these weapons are developed by more countries. Showing: Feb. 12 at 3 p.m., Premiere Cinemas

‘The Two Escobars’

✭✭✭ (2010)

An eye-opening sports documentary made for ESPN about the role of narcotics money in backing Colombia’s national soccer team in the 1980s and ’90s — a team starring Andres Escobar and largely backed by the drug lord (no relation) Pablo Escobar. Showing: Feb. 12 at 9 p.m., Premiere Cinemas

‘The Unforeseen’

✭✭✭ (2010)

This documentary is about residents of Austin, Texas, who battle developers and the state that this hip, activist capital city is out of step with in an effort to save their endangered watershed. Showing: Feb. 11 at 7 p.m., Premiere Cinemas

‘La Estrategia Del Carcol’ (“The Strategy of the Snail”)

✭✭✭ (1993)

Sergio Cabrera‘s deadpan comedy, in Spanish with English subtitles, is about the colorful residents of a Bogota apartment house who use assorted methods in fending off the owner’s efforts to evict them. Showing: Feb. 11 at 7p.m., Feb. 13 at 6 p.m., both at Premiere Cinemas

OLA Fest 7, the Orlando Latin American Film and Heritage Festival

When: Thursday-Feb. 13

Where: Premiere Cinemas Fashion Square 14, Lake Eola Park, other locales