Unfolding without narration,this is a spare and elegant film constructed entirely from archival footage shotbetween 1912 and 1932 in the former Dutch East Indies. Luminous nitrate imagesare set against a simple soundtrack of birdcalls, bells, and murmuring voices,punctuated occasionally by native poems and songs. The film's carefulconstruction reveals the face of systematic colonization and the effect ofeconomic expansion on a culture. There are stunning moments-a child leaves offbreast feeding to drag on a cigarette; crocodiles are lassoed in a round-up°.Much of the footage, shot by white Dutchmen and meant as propaganda for theircolonial causes, now seems both comical and ominous°. The natives' songs andpoems, on the other hand, are full of regretful laments against hunger and thedrive for profit°. Mother Dao is both an informative time capsule and a movingtribute to a lost world."-Rachel Rosen, S. F. Int'l Film Festival