The California Film Institute in partnership with the Buddhist Film Foundation presents a conversation with Director Edward Burger and special guest Bill Porter, author of The Road to Heaven-Encounters with Chinese Hermits, the book that inspired the film, moderated by Gaetano Kazuo Maida, Buddhist Film Foundation Executive Director/Chief Programmer
This film is an intimate insider’s look at meditation masters and their students living in scattered retreats dotting China’s Zhongnan Mountains. These peaks have been home to recluses since the time of the Yellow Emperor, some five thousand years ago. Widely thought to have been wiped out by a modernizing China, this tradition is seen in this elegant film to continue with real energy and substance. Filmed on location in China. In Chinese and English with English subtitles. Director: Edward Burger (US 2021) 93 min.
Bill Porter rarely travels from his home in Port Townsend, WA these days, and we’re delighted to host him for this very special event. Besides The Road to Heaven and his other nonfiction work, Zen Baggage, he is a highly regarded translator of Chinese poetry and Buddhist texts, using the pen name Red Pine. He is particularly known for his well-informed and accessible renderings of The Heart Sutra, The Collected Songs of Cold Mountain, Lao-tzu’s Taoteching, The Platform Sutra, The Diamond Sutra, P’u Ming’s Oxherding Pictures & Verses, and the recent Zen Roots.
PRESENTED IN PARTNERSHIP WITH BUDDHIST FILM FOUNDATION For more info, please visit www.buddhistfilmfoundation.org/