Peter Wintonick is an independent documentary filmmaker and a self-professed expert of documentary festivals - he spends the whole year attending them. He is one of the founders of DocAgora, an international documentary think tank and currently runs Necessary Illusions Productions. This makes it all the more heartening that while presenting the award for the best feature length documentary film, he proclaimed: "I judge a festival by the quality of it's volunteers and by that measure, this festival has been absolutely outstanding."

Volunteering is not only socially valuable also gives youths the chance to experience different walks of life or to hone their skills in their fields of interest. Furthermore, it allows them to meet and learn to deal with different types of people and situations, nurturing well-rounded persons. Here are some photos, videos and afterthoughts of volunteers at the 2010 Taiwan International Documentary Festival:

Volunteers from different places, backgrounds and ages all came together to overcome any problems. We all came to the same place, for the same event, with the same idea. It’s really moving to see～Fly Fat Boy

Peter's comments, the hard work and the and the positive effects, both on the volunteers and more generally on society that I witnessed at the Taiwan International Documentary Festival were inspiring, and thus eRenlai and the Taipei Ricci Institute (TRI) have decided to launch a new volunteering scheme. The plethora of different events, awards conferences, publications and works that our organisation churns out annually means that there are always plenty of exciting opportunities to learn some skills in the most dynamic, prestigious and creatively stimulating of organizations. We work in publishing, new media, writing, journalism, camera and soundwork, video editing, documentary film production, event organisation, academic conferences, environmental or sustainability work and the arts... Working with eRenlai and TRI you are given proximity to the top academics, feature journalists and event organisers, eRenlai even has its own in-house art directors. If you are interested in participating in eRenlai's volunteering scheme. Please This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Telling us a bit about yourself, why you want to volunteer and what you are interested in doing.

My first experience volunteering was very special and I met many independent film directors, even if I could only glance at them passing by. I learned new things and there was free lunch. Two birds with one stone～Rice

I’m so happy to have been a volunteer and to have met so many people. It expanded my horizons. Great festival by TIDF!!～ Orange

This is my second time as a TIDF volunteer. I like documentaries because they are different to normal commercial films. I’m willing to volunteer, and I’ll be a volunteer for life～ Ann Chen

I helped many people and many helped me. I hope I’m given this opportunity again～ Kai

3 short days spent watching numerous documentaries with Markus Nornes, and hearing his profound analysis of Asian film, allowed me to see documentary from a different perspective ～ 蘇何

The way these documentaries have touched me, will stay with me throughout my life ～ 國惠