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To the Land of Bliss
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Filmmaker Name:
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Wen-jie Qin
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Film Length:
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47 min
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Film Year:
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2001
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Duration:
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46-75 min
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Decade:
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2000s
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Color:
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color
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Region:
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Asia
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To the Land of Bliss is an intimate portrayal of the Chinese Pure Land Buddhist way of dying and living. In 1998, filmmaker/anthropologist Wen- jie Qin returned to her home region in Sichuan Province in southwest China to research the post-Mao revival of Buddhism. During her fieldwork on the sacred mountain Emei, an eminent monk named Jue Chang passes away. Wen- jie Qin captures the poignant time following his death when community members mourn the departure of their beloved teacher. The film follows those same people as they gather to escort the monk's body through a rite of fire, and to ultimately observe his consciousness rise to a paradise known as the Land of Bliss of Amita Buddha.
The filmmaker encounters intricacies of wonder and mystery alongside the Chinese Pure Land Buddhists as she searches for the door to Amita Buddha, the Buddha of Infinite Light and Infinite Life.
"...The film is done with candor and sensitivity. It is informed enough to respect the voices of the people being filmed, but edited with a certain innocence that lets the humanity of its subjects shine through... [It] gives us a short peek into Buddhism on the ground, as seen by contemporary Chinese Buddhists".
—Professor Luis O. Gomez, University of Michighan
SELECTED SCREENINGS & AWARDS
Northeastern Anthropological Association Film Festival, Burlington, Vermont, 2003
Durango Film Festival, Colorado, 2003
Göttingen International Ethnographic Film Festival, Germany, 2002
Beeld voor Beeld Festival, Amsterdam, 2002
New England Film & Video Festival, Boston, 2002
Boston Museum of Fine Arts Film Program, 2002
4th Annual Roxbury Film Festival, Massachusetts, 2002
SCREENINGS & AWARDSAlgonquin Indiefest, Pennsylvania & New Jersey, 2003
Harvard Film Archive, 2003
RAI International Festival of Ethnographic Film, London, 2003
Association for Asian Studies Annual Conference, New York, 2003
American Psychological Association Annual Convention, Canada, 2003
EthnoFilm Fest, Germany, 2002
International Festival of Cinema & Religion, Italy, 2002
Award of Commendation, SVA Film Festival, 2002
Silver Medal in Documentary, New York EXPOsition of Short Film & Video, 2002
Documentary & Ethnographic Film Festival of Belo Horizonte, Brazil
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