Episode 431: In The Seats With...Jason Loftus and 'Eternal Spring'

When you need to make a story stick....it's important to think outside the box....On this episode we are diving head first into a real and important story which has been presented in an incredibly vibrant way.  The film is 'Eternal Spring'.In March 2002, a state TV station in China was hijacked by members of outlawed spiritual group Falun Gong. Their goal was to counter the government narrative about their practice. In the aftermath, police raids sweep Changchun City, and comic book illustrator Daxiong, 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. Combining present-day footage with 3D animation inspired by Daxiong’s art, Eternal Spring 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.It's an incredibly vital story which just happens to be Canada's official submission for the upcoming Academy Awards.  By having it's subject be an active participant in the telling of the story through testimonials and the art of the man himself via animation; Eternal Spring has an immediacy to it that is hard to look away from.We had the pleasure of sitting down with director Jason Loftus to discuss the importance of the story and so very much more....Eternal Spring is in theatres now.