Exclusive Interview With Director of Canada’s First Mandarin-Language Submission for Oscars

A look behind the film exposing the CCP's persecution of Falun Gong and censorship

The production of award-winning documentary “Eternal Spring,” which has been selected as Canada’s submission as a contender for nomination for the Oscars, faced pressure from the Chinese communist regime, said the film’s director, whose family also received threats from Beijing.

The film, directed by Torontonian Jason Loftus, is based on the true stories of 18 brave individuals who in 2002 tapped into a Chinese state television station. The story and animation were drawn by acclaimed Chinese artist Daxiong, who looked back at the events that occurred 20 years ago in his homeland, where he and his fellow practitioners of the spiritual practice Falun Gong became targets of a brutal persecution directed by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

But the making of the film agitated the CCP, which took measures against Loftus and his family.

Loftus and Daxiong—who has drawn for the Justice League and Star Wars comics—had worked together to develop a video game many years ago, and the game was published by Chinese entertainment giant Tencent. But Loftus said Beijing had pressured Tencent into cutting ties with his company after it discovered the creation of “Eternal Spring” was in process at the time.

“A lot of people will say nowadays that China wields a lot of influence in Hollywood. I think that’s true,” Loftus told The Epoch Times in an exclusive interview.

“My wife’s family, who is in northeast China, was contacted by the Public Security Bureau there and given threats, and warned that [the CCP] knew what we were up to overseas,” he said. “So definitely, those concerns about potential impacts to business are real, ... there definitely can be consequences.”

A Story of 18 Brave Individuals

“Eternal Spring,” selected from among 16 films submitted to a pan-Canadian selection committee, is the first animated documentary and Mandarin-language submission representing Canada to be a nominee in Oscars’ Best International Feature Film category at the 95th Academy Awards, according to a news release from Telefilm Canada on Aug. 24.

The animated documentary reveals how the spiritual practice Falun Gong fell prey to a brutal persecution directed by the CCP, which also deceived and turned the Chinese population against the group through extensive propaganda starting in the late 1990s.

Falun Gong, which consists of meditative exercises and teachings based on the tenets of truthfulness, compassion, and forbearance, was first introduced in 1992 in China, where it quickly gained widespread popularity due to its benefits to people’s physical and mental health. By 1999, the practice attracted 70 million to 100 million adherents, according to official Chinese estimates.

Then-CCP leader Jiang Zemin, however, perceived that popularity as a threat to the regime’s totalitarian rule, and on July 20, 1999, launched a persecution campaign aimed at eradicating the practice.

As part of that violent suppression, on Jan. 23, 2001, CCP mouthpiece Xinhua News Agency broadcast a video clip of five people setting themselves on fire at Beijing’s Tiananmen Square. Xinhua immediately claimed the five to be Falun Gong practitioners who tried to commit a religious suicide, even though suicide is counter to the practice’s teachings.

Despite various inconsistencies in the video, which were later challenged by international researchers and media, Xinhua’s reporting of the staged incident struck a major propaganda victory for the CCP against Falun Gong. Many Chinese citizens began to proactively turn in their coworkers, neighbours, and even family members who practiced Falun Gong, believing the group was truly dangerous.

A still from the film "Eternal Spring." (Courtesy of Lofty Sky Pictures)

Eighteen Falun Gong practitioners, seen in “Eternal Spring,” tapped into the state television station to broadcast information counter to Xinhua’s narrative. Programming that reported the facts about the persecution campaign against Falun Gong was broadcast simultaneously on eight channels to 300,000 cable subscribers in Changchun.

Within days of circumventing the state television in Changchun—the Chinese namesake of the film—over 5,000 Falun Gong practitioners in the city and nearby area were arrested in a massive sweep by authorities.

Loftus said he hopes more people in China can also see the film.

“There’s a lot of people who are in China who made great sacrifices to be able to tell this story because they cared not just about their own individual situations, but about all of the Chinese people who are living under the same circumstances, and they wish for a better future,” Loftus said.

“We did our best to try and capture that spirit of hope that they carried, and we hope that Chinese people can be inspired by that.”

In the history of the Oscars, only eight Canadian films have been officially nominated for the Best Foreign Language Film category: in 2013, Rebelle, by Kim Nguyen; in 2012, Monsieur Lazhar, by Philippe Falardeau and In Darkness, by Agnieszka Holland (a minority coproduction with Poland and Germany); in 2011, Incendies, by Denis Villeneuve; and, in 2007, Water, by Deepa Mehta. The list also includes three films by Denys Arcand: Le Déclin de l’empire américain, in 1987, Jésus de Montréal, in 1990 and, in 2004, Les Invasions barbares, the only Canadian film to have won the Oscar in this category. 

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