‘Eternal Spring’ Selected as Canada’s Submission for the Oscars

Film is the story of 18 brave Chinese who tapped into state TV to air uncensored news in China

“Eternal Spring,” a film about a daring operation by a group of Chinese citizens who brought uncensored news to China, has been selected as Canada’s submission to the upcoming Oscars in the International Feature Film category.

“It is with great enthusiasm that we announce that Eternal Spring (Chang Chun ) was selected from among 16 films submitted to the pan-Canadian selection committee for having the best chance of positioning itself well in the multi-stage Oscar race,” Christa Dickenson, executive director and CEO of Telefilm Canada, said in a statement.

“Eternal Spring” is an animated documentary by Jason Loftus that examines the 2002 circumvention to a Chinese state TV station. The story and animation were drawn from acclaimed Chinese artist Daxiong, who endeavoured to piece together the events that occurred 20 years ago in his homeland, where he and his fellow practitioners of the spiritual practice Falun Dafa became targets of a persecution campaign by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) starting in 1999.

“Being nominated to represent Canada for Best International Film at the 95th Academy Awards is an immense honour,” Loftus told The Epoch Times in an emailed statement.

“We hope that Daxiong’s tale and artwork, along with the talents of our Quebec-based animation group, will resonate worldwide .”

The documentary is based on the stories of 18 Falun Dafa practitioners who tapped into a state cable television broadcast network on March 5, 2002, in Changchun city, in China’s northeastern Jilin Province. Programs of “Self-immolation or Hoax?” and “Falun Dafa Spreads Worldwide” were broadcast on eight channels simultaneously for about 45 minutes as a result.

See also  FACTCHECK: The Atlantic published this article about Straight Men ending 'The Stigma’ Surrounding Monkeypox.

Falun Dafa (also known as Falun Gitong) is a discipline of spiritual meditation that is founded on truthfulness, compassion and forgiveness. The practice enjoyed immense popularity in China after it was first publicly introduced in 1992, with government statistics showing that between 70 million to 100 million people considered themselves adherents of the discipline in the 1990s.

The CCP saw this popularity as a threat and launched a campaign to persecute the practice in July 1999.. Many adherents were sent to labour camps and tortured, while others lost their lives. Families also suffered from the persecution.

The CCP directed an extensive propaganda campaign against this practice to defame it. They even staged a self-immolation incident in order to claim that it was Falun Dafa followers who committed suicide.

The brave citizens’ operation in the movie was intended to expose the lies about the practice.

“Eternal Spring has been awarded a variety of prizes, such as at Hot Docs Film Festival, Movies That Matter, in Toronto and Thessaloniki International Film Festival, in Greece.

The Oscars is scheduled to be held on March 12, 2023.

Follow

Isaac Teo, an Epoch Times reporter from Toronto.

Follow

Andrew Chen, an Epoch Times reporter is based in Toronto.

Read More

Previous post Son Gets Life in Prison For Killing Dad, Dad’s Girlfriend in Aliso Viejo
Next post As Inflation Pushes Consumers to Cheaper Meats and Poultry, Beef Prices Fall in July