The film Dancing with the Dead: Red Pine and the Art of Translation tells the adventurous and sometimes comic 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.

Join us on Sunday, April 21, 2024, for a Special Event - the Seattle Premiere of the film at SIFF Cinema Egyptian - followed by a discussion with Red Pine (Bill Porter), Director Ward Serrill, singer Spring Cheng, and podcast host Shin Yu Pai. This event is co-presented by Asia Society Seattle, Seattle International Film Festival, Elliott Bay Book Company, and Copper Canyon Press. 

Limited complimentary tickets are available to Asia Society Seattle members on a first-come, first-served basis. Members, please email [email protected] if you have trouble registering. For membership inquiries, please email [email protected]. Tickets are otherwise available for sale at SIFF. One Show only! Watch the trailer here.

We appreciate additional donations, which help further our global mission of building bridges. Please donate here.

AGENDA

Date: Sunday, April 21, 2024 Pacific Time

Location: SIFF Cinema Egyptian, 805 E Pine St, Seattle, WA 98122

2:00 p.m.     Film Premiere
3:30 p.m.     Q&A with Director Ward Serrill; Performance by Singer Spring Cheng; Conversation with Red Pine
4:30 p.m.     Book signing by Red Pine
5:00 p.m.     Event Concludes 

SPEAKERS

Bill Porter is an American author who translates under the pen-name Red Pine. He has published over thirty books dealing with Chinese culture and translations of its seminal texts. His books dealing with these subjects have been honored with a number of awards, including two NEA translation fellowships, a PEN translation award, the inaugural Asian Literature Award of the American Literary Translators Association, a Guggenheim Fellowship, which he received to support work on Finding Them Gone, and the Thornton Wilder Prize for Translation bestowed by the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

Road to Heaven, Porter’s 1989 book about his quest to find hermits in the Zhongnan Mountains who were still practicing China’s ancient spiritual enlightenment traditions, became a bestselling book in China. More recently, in 2023, he was honored in Beijing with the Special Book Award of China.

Ward Serrill is the award-winning filmmaker of The Heart of the Game, released by Miramax to wide critical acclaim. He has created more than ninety short films including Building One House with Robert Redford and Wild America with Sissy Spacek. He wrote and directed Something in the Water for PBS and the feature documentary Song of the New Earth as well as TreeStory, a series of short films designed to inspire our relationship to trees. He wrote and directed Babies Behind Bars, for Soledad O‘Brien. His third feature documentary, The Bowmakers, on the makers and masters of the modern violin bow, was released in 2019.

His current film, Dancing with the Dead: Red Pine and the Art of Translation, is out in 2024. His memoir, To Crack the World Open – Solitude, Alaska, and a Dog Named Woody is published by Girl Friday Books. The Underside Color of Green, a collection of poetry is published by Woody Creek Books. 

Spring Cheng is a musician, writer, and teacher in mind-body regeneration. She co-founded the Resonance Path Institute and “Living Resonance”, a holistic psychology graduate program at Ubiquity University. Born in China, Spring has traversed the cultural landscape between east and west and found a sense of belonging in building a bridge of mutual understanding. Spring was born during the Cultural Revolution. By the age of eight, she was looking for a way out of the personal and collective deprivation surrounding her when she discovered ancient Chinese poetry. She credits that poetry with keeping her alive during the darkest hours of her life.  Spring brings her incredible artistry to Dancing with the Dead through her singing of many of the classic poems in the film. 

Shin Yu Pai is the host and creator of the award-winning, chart-topping podcast Ten Thousand Things for KUOW, Seattle's NPR's affiliate station. The show has garnered two awards from the Asian American Podcasters Association and a Silver Signal award. Ten Thousand Things was named as one of the best podcasts of 2023 by Mashable and is recommended by The Guardian and Tricycle Magazine. Shin Yu is currently Civic Poet of The City of Seattle and has published 15 books, including most recently No Neutral  (Empty Bowl) and Less Desolate  (Blue Cactus) - a collection of haiku comics. She is a frequent moderator for cultural organizations that have included On The Boards and Town Hall Seattle.