29. ETERNAL SPRING (2022) dir. Jason Loftus

"Eternal Spring" is a stellar documentary, revisiting, on its 20th anniversary, the March 2002 hijacking of Chinese national TV in the city of Chungchun by Falun Gong practitioners. Falun Gong, a religion which spins off of Buddhist tradition, garnered a wealth of support in the '90s, and when its membership grew large, became a threat to the government's cultural control. As a result, Falun Gong was banned and its practitioners made pariah. Protests ended in beatings, deaths, you name it. Some practitioners, such as Daxiong, the Canadian comic book artist whose work fills this movie, fled their homes to avoid persecution. 20 years later, Daxiong works with the one remaining member of the TV station hijacking to build an animated portrait of that time. It's simultaneously a heist film and plea for religious freedom expressed through beautifully crafted, sometimes even breathtaking, art.---Follow The Movies on ⁠Instagram ⁠& ⁠Letterboxd⁠Financially support the podcast via the ⁠tip jar!