Hot Docs 2022: ETERNAL SPRING Trailer, Survival and a Battle

Jason Loftus' animated documentary Eternal Spring just won multiple awards at the recently-concluded Hot Docs 2022, where it made its North American premiere.

"Combining present-day footage with 3D animation inspired by Daxiong's art, Eternal Spring," according to the official verbiage, "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."

Hold on, what event? What happened? Again, per the official site: "In March 2002, a state TV signal in China is hacked by members of the banned spiritual group Falun Gong. Their goal is to counter the government narrative about their practice.

"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. He arrives in North America, blaming the hijacking for worsening a violent repression. But his views are challenged when he meets the lone surviving participant to have escaped China, now living in Seoul, South Korea."

The film won the Hot Docs Audience Award for best film and the Rogers Audience Award for best Canadian film. It will next screen at the New York Human Rights Film Festival on May 23 at Lincoln Center and May 24 at IFC Center (one of 10 official selections and the US premiere), followed on May 31 and June 2 at Krakow Film Festival.

The trailer, which you can watch below, is delicate and inviting, simultaneously signaling that much more is afoot than pretty pictures drawn by a talented artist.