A big winner at this year's Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival, Eternal Spring won the Rogers Audience Award for Best Canadian Feature and the Hot Docs Audience Award. Directed by Jason Loftus, the film takes audiences behind the scenes of spiritual/religious group Falun Gong's attempt to hack the state TV signal in China. Eternal Spring explores the days leading up to the hijacking and its violent aftermath. Told using beautiful 3D animation, Eternal Spring is an interesting story about government censorship — although an eyebrow or two can be raised towards the obvious bias Loftus exhibits in his film.
Falun Gong is a religious movement founded by Li Hongzhi in China during the early 1990s. Initially, Falun Gong was practiced in mainland China without opposition from the country's ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP), but as its popularity grew, this soon changed. From Falun Gong's perspective, the CCP is threatened by the group's ever-increasing size and the independent thinking it encourages. From the mouth of CCP, Falun Gong promotes teachings that are dangerous and not in keeping with the cultural and social progress the party wishes to obtain.
The CCP has been accused of perpetrating torture, conversion programs and even organ harvesting against Falun Gong in its efforts to suppress the religious group. Eternal Spring details some of these stories as well as laying the foundations for Falun Gong's motivations to hijack the Chinese state TV channel.
Illustrated by Daxiong, a practitioner of Falun Gong and an acclaimed comic book artist behind graphic novels like Justice League and Star Wars, Eternal Spring uses a similar method to Academy Award nominee Flee by presenting all reenactments as sweeping animations. The illustrations are stunning and add a rich, beautiful dynamism to the film.
In addition to the illustrated reenactments, Loftus includes interviews with Daxiong, who participated in the uprising and hijacking, and other Falun Gong practitioners from around the world. Currently living in New York City after fleeing China following the police raids against the group, Daxiong goes on a journey to discover how the hijacking came to be while also accounting his own personal history with the organization. Speaking with other practitioners, stories come to light about the resiliency of some famed members of the group, including an individual nicknamed Big Truck, and the strength they exhibited in the face of discrimination.
The aim of Eternal Spring is to shine a spotlight on the unjust persecution of a religious group by the CCP, and for the most part it succeeds. Loftus inspires plenty of sympathy and compassion for his subjects and for Falun Gong as a whole. However, Eternal Spring fails to give audiences the full picture.
The CCP's aversion to (what we in North America would consider) basic freedoms, including freedom of religion, has been well-documented and rightly condemned by human rights activists and organizations. That being said, Eternal Spring glazes over how Falun Gong tows a line between religion and cult, and that its leader, Li, presents himself as humanity's saviour against aliens. The group's backing of The Epoch Times and its far-right wing beliefs, including promoting anti-vaccine and QAnon conspiracies, is never mentioned. Nor is its connection to Shen Yun, a dance and music touring company whose performances have been interpreted by many as homophobic, misogynistic and racist.
The battle between Falun Gong and the CCP has been ongoing for over 20 years. And while the violent and disturbing persecution of any group should be made known to the world at large, creating a false narrative by omission doesn't serve the film or audiences. By painting Falun Gong as a faultless entity without addressing any of its criticisms, Eternal Spring is, at best, an advertisement. At worst, it's simply propaganda.
(Vice)Falun Gong is a religious movement founded by Li Hongzhi in China during the early 1990s. Initially, Falun Gong was practiced in mainland China without opposition from the country's ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP), but as its popularity grew, this soon changed. From Falun Gong's perspective, the CCP is threatened by the group's ever-increasing size and the independent thinking it encourages. From the mouth of CCP, Falun Gong promotes teachings that are dangerous and not in keeping with the cultural and social progress the party wishes to obtain.
The CCP has been accused of perpetrating torture, conversion programs and even organ harvesting against Falun Gong in its efforts to suppress the religious group. Eternal Spring details some of these stories as well as laying the foundations for Falun Gong's motivations to hijack the Chinese state TV channel.
Illustrated by Daxiong, a practitioner of Falun Gong and an acclaimed comic book artist behind graphic novels like Justice League and Star Wars, Eternal Spring uses a similar method to Academy Award nominee Flee by presenting all reenactments as sweeping animations. The illustrations are stunning and add a rich, beautiful dynamism to the film.
In addition to the illustrated reenactments, Loftus includes interviews with Daxiong, who participated in the uprising and hijacking, and other Falun Gong practitioners from around the world. Currently living in New York City after fleeing China following the police raids against the group, Daxiong goes on a journey to discover how the hijacking came to be while also accounting his own personal history with the organization. Speaking with other practitioners, stories come to light about the resiliency of some famed members of the group, including an individual nicknamed Big Truck, and the strength they exhibited in the face of discrimination.
The aim of Eternal Spring is to shine a spotlight on the unjust persecution of a religious group by the CCP, and for the most part it succeeds. Loftus inspires plenty of sympathy and compassion for his subjects and for Falun Gong as a whole. However, Eternal Spring fails to give audiences the full picture.
The CCP's aversion to (what we in North America would consider) basic freedoms, including freedom of religion, has been well-documented and rightly condemned by human rights activists and organizations. That being said, Eternal Spring glazes over how Falun Gong tows a line between religion and cult, and that its leader, Li, presents himself as humanity's saviour against aliens. The group's backing of The Epoch Times and its far-right wing beliefs, including promoting anti-vaccine and QAnon conspiracies, is never mentioned. Nor is its connection to Shen Yun, a dance and music touring company whose performances have been interpreted by many as homophobic, misogynistic and racist.
The battle between Falun Gong and the CCP has been ongoing for over 20 years. And while the violent and disturbing persecution of any group should be made known to the world at large, creating a false narrative by omission doesn't serve the film or audiences. By painting Falun Gong as a faultless entity without addressing any of its criticisms, Eternal Spring is, at best, an advertisement. At worst, it's simply propaganda.