Date/Time
Date(s) - 29/12/2024
11:30 - 13:00
Location
Electric Palace cinema, Hastings TN34 3ER
Dancing with the Dead: Red Pine and the Art of Translation
Meet Bill Porter, a translator and author who is a living gateway to ancient Chinese history and culture.
Director: Ward Serril
84 mins / 2024 / USA
Filmmaker Ward Serrill (The Heart of the Game; The Bowmakers) presents a new project on Port Townsend’s Bill Porter. Porter, who goes by the pen name Red Pine, is a renowned translator of ancient Chinese poetry. He has published over thirty books, including Road to Heaven, an autobiographical testament of his quest to find hermits in the Zhongnan Mountains, which reignited a movement in modern China to seek enlightenment through poetry and mountain solitude.
The film traces Bill’s life, from his affluent upbringing as a child of a bank robber, to his decision to turn his back on the American devotion to materialism and instead live in the monasteries of Taiwan’s mountains. His fascination with Buddhism and poetry guided his extensive travels through remote regions of China to pursue an ancient tradition of mountain hermits, vital to Chinese culture.
“Inside China, he’s a source of endless fascination, because here’s a Westerner who really gets it, who really understands China, who clearly loves Chinese culture, who’s devoted his life to it.” – Ian Johnson, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist
- Book a ticket to a screening.
- Become an official Friend of the Electric Palace
- Hire the cinema for a private party
- Buy a gift voucher
- Donate to the cinema
- Sign up to receive our enewsletter
- Play our piano before a screening and see the film for free!
- Support us on social media by sharing our posts and events
Categories
Log in
