Bellingham Health and Movement Collective Presents:
Dancing With the Dead: Red Pine and the Art of Translation
Movie Screening
Special Guest Spring Cheng!
Friday March 7
7 PM
1405 Fraser St, STE 101 Bellingham 98229
Limited snacks provided, feel free to bring your own
$5-10 SuggestedDonation: Cash or Venmo @Matt-VanDyke-3 (Donations will go towards performers, BHAMCollective, and/or local good causes)
ABOUT THE FILM
The film tells the adventurous and sometimes comical adventures of
Bill Porter (Red Pine), a world-renowned translator of ancient Chinese
poetry, who ignited a movement in China to seek inner peace through
poetry and mountain solitude. In these fraught times of political and
economic relations with China, Bill is a living bridge between the two
cultures, a bridge that is supported by ancient poetry and
understanding.
Spring Cheng
Spring Cheng brings her incredible artistry to the film through her
singing of many of the ancient poems in the film. Spring was born in
China and came to the U.S. in her early twenties. Her childhood was
very difficult.
“I was born during the Cultural Revolution, one of the darkest hours
of China’s modern history. The whole nation was in a state of chaotic
fractions, brutal divides, and wanton self-destruction.”
By the age of eight, she was praying for a way out of the personal and
collective deprivation and abandonment she found herself drowning in.
Then she discovered ancient Chinese poetry.
“Chinese classic poetry kept me alive as I grew up in China, literally
feeding my body and soul at a time when both food and beauty were
scarce.”
Ward was searching for a singer for the film but had given up after
nearly a year with no results. Then he met Spring at a dance retreat
when she stood up and sang an ancient Chinese poem. He had found the
film’s singer.
“As if directed by an unseen hand, Ward’s artistry of movie-making and
my musical expression matched each other in a loving embrace.
everything happened as if being orchestrated by an invisible hand
weaving threads of mystery.”
