A Breath: Surviving the 20th Century in China

Said to be the amount of time it takes to make a brush stroke in calligraphy, "a breath" is also poignantly used to describe a lifetime. In this remarkable award-winning documentary from director Christopher Tuckfield, the extraordinary lives of celebrated Chinese calligrapher Huang Miaozi and his wife, the painter Yu Feng, are examined. Now in their 80s and residing in Australia, Miaozi and Feng lived through all the major turbulence that defines 20th century China, including outside invasion (the extended Japanese invasion that began in 1937), inside conflict (the civil wars between the nationalists and communists that raged throughout several decades), and the terrible persecution inflicted by the Cultural Revolution launched in the 1960s. Remarkably, both their art and their souls have survived. What makes A Breath extra special is its magical tapestry of art, music and visual imagery, creating a positively elegant cinematic statement of the superiority of the individual spirit to the cancer of ideology. Highly recommended. Editor's Choice. Aud: J, H, C, P. (P. Van Vleck)