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Shelton-Mason County Journal - Dedicated to the citizens of Mason County, Washington since 1886

IN THE DARK REVIEWS

A chronicle of scholar's revival of Chinese culture

November 2, 2023

Courtesy photo

Port Townsend's Bill Porter, aka "Red Pine," translator of historic Chinese Buddhists and Taoists, stars in director Ward Serrill's "Dancing with the Dead: Red Pine and the Art of Translation," now playing at the Rose Theatre in Port Townsend.

I saw "The Bowmakers," by director Ward Serrill and producer Rocky Freidman, as part of the 2019 Port Townsend Film Festival, back when Freidman still co-owned the Rose Theatre.

Even as one of 15 films I saw that weekend, "The Bowmakers" stood out for Serrill's deft weaving of multiple nations' cultural histories, its detailed view of workpeople's processes and its idiosyncratic first-person biographies.

I shouldn't be surprised to find that same alchemy in Serrill's follow-up collaboration with Freidman, "Dancing with the Dead: Red Pine and the Art of Translation," a brisk and contemplativ...

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