Eternal Spring (長春)

Jason Loftus

The thrilling and emotional story of a group of Falun Gong practitioners who managed to shortly take over Chinese state TV. A story of immense bravery and life under totalitarian rule. Animation and documentary ingenuously combined with breathtaking result.

‘History has taught Chinese people a lesson,’ we hear at the beginning of Eternal Spring (長春). ‘Dare to stand up to the Party, and you will suffer.’ However, standing up to the Chinese Communist Party was exactly what a group of members of outlawed spiritual group Falun Gong did. On 5 March 2002, they broke into a broadcast of Chinese state TV and played a video about the movement.

Their story is made into an animation by cartoonist Daxiong, himself a Falun Gong member. His breathtaking and thrilling animated scenes are interspersed with interviews with many of the main characters – that is: the ones who survived and managed to flee China. Next to the gripping stories about people such as ‘Mr. White’, fearless and passionate ‘Big Truck’ and mastermind Liang – a master in secret guerrilla information campaigns – Daxiong contemplates his own choices and dilemmas, and confronts his pain.

Credits

Director
Jason Loftus
Producer
Jason Loftus, Masha Loftus
Year
2022
Country of production
Canada
Type
Documentary
Duration
86 minutes
Spoken language
Chinese (Mandarin), English
Subtitles
EN
Production company
Lofty Sky Pictures
Dutch distributor
Reveal Films