Festival Hits

Eternal Spring

Jason Loftus
Screening time  
01.04. / Saturday, 19:30 - 21:30 Theatre 1  

Confronted with government denunciations and human rights violations against their spiritual practice, a group of Chinese activists, members of outlawed spiritual group Falun Gong, executes a bold and perilous plan to hack into state television. In the aftermath, police raids sweep Changchun City, and comic book illustrator Daxiong (Justice League, Star Wars), a Falun Gong practitioner, is forced to flee... Combining present-day footage with 3D animation inspired by Daxiong’s art, this animated documentary retraces the event on its 20th anniversary, and brings to life an unprecedented story of defiance, harrowing eyewitness accounts of persecution, and an exhilarating tale of determination to speak up for political and religious freedoms, no matter the cost.

Jason_loftus

Jason Loftus

Jason Loftus is a Peabody Award-winning filmmaker and four-time Canadian Screen Award nominee. His work spans documentary, docuseries, virtual reality, narrative games, and animation. Jason produced the docuseries on Chinese cuisine, Confucius Was a Foodie, which was named Best Food Series on TV at the 2021 Taste Awards. Jason’s directorial debut documentary feature Ask No Questions, codirected with Eric Pedicelli, premiered in competition at Slamdance in 2020. It won the Copper Wing (Best World Cinema) at the Phoenix Film Festival, was endorsed by artist Ai Weiwei, and was nominated by Film Threat as 2021’s Best Socially Relevant Documentary, among other honours. Eternal Spring is Jason’s follow-up to Ask No Questions and his second documentary feature as director.

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Eternal Spring

Canada
2022, 86'

Directed by:
Jason Loftus

Screenplay by:
Jason Loftus, Yvan Pinard, Kevin Koo

Cinematography:
John Tran

Edited by:
David Schmidt

Music:
Tom Hill

Producer:
Jason Loftus

Festivals & Awards:

Thessaloniki DF: Fischer Audience Award, Hellenic Parliament Human Values Award (2022), Hot Docs: Audience Award (2022), Movies that Matter F: Special Mention (2022), DeadCenter: Best Documentary Feature (2022), Lighthouse IFF: Documentary Jury Award,  Documentary Audience Award (2022), MLFF: Best International Documentary Feature, Audience Award (2022)