SYDNEY FILM FESTIVAL : THIS BODY IS SO IMPERMANENT

 https://www.sydneyartsguide.com.au/sydney-film-festival-this-body-is-so-impermanent/


SYDNEY FILM FESTIVAL : THIS BODY IS SO IMPERMANENT

5 NOVEMBER 2021 

A powerful ,somewhat hypnotic film this is a filmed real-time performance of a sacred Buddhist sutra, directed by the illustrious Peter Sellars in collaboration with a trio of major artists : calligrapher Wang Dongling, dancer Michael Schumacher and South Indian singer Ganavya. All three use their particular artform to develop a simultaneous meditation on a passage from the Vimalakirti Sutra, a foundational Buddhist text from around the first century AD.  It is a meditation on the fragility and impermanence of our human bodies, illness, suffering,  life and death – yet there is also the possibility of awakening and enlightenment.  The film reiterates the sutra’s stated correlation between the body and assorted aspects of nature and the earth. The beauty of nature, with fabulous shots of rocks, lotuses in a pond, a river (the water of life? ) is also highlighted and how we humans have to look after the planet. We hear the soft brush of pen and ink on paper, as well as, for example, a gong, and a turbulent river and waterfall.While Sellars, the director, is in Los Angeles .through the technology of Zoom we see Ganavya, a South Indian devotional singer in Oregon, chanting and singing the words. (subtitles provided). Wang Dongling is shown in his studio in Hangchou while Michael Shumacher is in his rather bare apartment in Amsterdam.

In the first half of the film, the quoted, sung text deliberates on the ephemeral human body and our inevitable suffering. Ganavya sings: “This body . . . is like a water bubble, not remaining very long. It is a mirage born from the appetites of the passions. . . . It is like a reflection, being the image of former actions .” Dongling’s calligraphy gradually emerges and spreads. Shumacher tentatively moves carefully and cautiously stretches a little on his bed. Is he awake or dreaming ?

In the second half of the work Shumacher at first trembles and writhes as if extremely ill , then he shakily stands, walks and moves, kneels and slithers gracefully on the floor – a combination of angular, graceful birdlike sculptural movements , contemporary and possibly classical Indian dance. There are also swooping dives and semi-balletic movements opening up the space of the body We mostly see closeups of Dongling’s face and hands and how his explosively expressive calligraphy grows and grows. We see him mix the ink and how his work expands to fill a whole wall (we also see some of his shoes hanging up). At times the three are blended with almost ghostly, dreamlike film footage.

An intense, meditative film.

https://www.sff.org.au/program/browse/this-body-is-so-impermanent

Digital, color, 79 min. Director: Peter Sellars. With: Wang Dongling, Ganavya, Michael Schumacher.

Screens 4 and 7 November. On Demand as of 12 November 2021.

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