Last week, we spent 21 hours in the media seminar organized by the Holy Spirit Seminary College. It is part of our BRS programme, organized once every two years. Dr. Dominic Yung led his team of staff to explore aging, sickness and death through movies. They are very professional and their contents are very substantial. I must say that I was unprepared for such an overwhelming emotional bombardments. Both the full-featured movies and the video clips have been well chosen and sent my head and my heart spinning. They stirred up a lot of reflections in us afterwards.
On Tuesday, Dr. Yung kickstarted the seminar with an analysis of a silent movie "The Passion of Joan of Arc" which was made in 1928. The martyrdom of St. Joan of Arc was portrayed in the fashion of the passion of Christ. The director made use of long stretches of big close-ups to create an oppressive tension on the audience. Today, Dr. Yung told us that two events happened when he prepared the materials for this seminar. First of all, his mother passed away. Then, the Diocesan Audio-Visual Centre had to issue an official statement about the recent "Devil jibe" incident. The Maid of Orléans was chosen by God to do things which she might not want to do. This very much summarizes what Dr. Yung had in mind at that time. It also reminds me to let go, not to insist on doing things in my way.
Dear Lord, Your will be done. But it is easier said than done!
On Thursday, a full-featured Japanese film, "Memories of Tomorrow", was shown. Ms. Zita Tsang, a staff of the HKDAVC, briefed us on the background of this 2007 movie. The story follows the life of a successful advertizing executive after he was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease. His memories began to fail him. He repeatedly bought bottles after bottles of shaving cream. He lost his ways in errants. When the film approaches the end, he could not recognize his own wife! Still, his wife did not abandon him. Through the doctor who diagnosed the man, the director announced to the whole world his attitude towards life. Sickness and death are fates from which nobody can escape. Therefore, seize the moment. Do now whatever you can do to make your remaining days shine forth. This film rang my heart because I found many similarities between me and the executive. I was unable to hold back my tears. I was particularly touched by the wife and there is no need to show me any logic. No logic will be able to convince anybody. I am touched and will love my wife better and more. Period.
Saturday morning, Ms Zita Tsang continued to present her research on the 26 Japanese martyrs and a silent movie made in 1931 about them. She tried to postulate the similarity between Japanese culture and Christianity. Her colleague, Ms. Catherine Wong, continued to explore the topic. She followed the five stages of grief postulated by Dr. Elisabeth Kübler-Ross and illustrated them with a huge collection of video clips. These HKDAVC people must have spend a lot of time editing the clips. In the afternoon, she showed us a 2001 Cantonese movie, "The Funeral March 常在我心".The plot of this little romance surprised us. We didn't expect the two canto-pop singers to be able to act. They did deliver a convincing picture. Truly, we can lead a happy, helpful and meaningful life even after we are diagnosed with an incurable disease. Movies can persuade. Cheer up.
This morning, another Ms. Tsang shared her collection. She has worked as a social worker as well as a Radio DJ. Obviously, she is very outgoing and pleasant. We enjoyed her presentation a lot. Though the topic of this seminar is rather negative, all the speakers are able to radiate a positive beam of hope in the gloomy atmosphere which induces us to confront our own attitudes towards life and death. Before lunch, we watch "Ponette", a 1996 French movie which is about a four-year-old girl losing her mother in a car accident. The movies superbly explores how this young girl tried different ways to cope with this traumatic loss and the consequent grief. The classmates were captivated by the incredible acting of the four-year-old actress.
Life is full of contingencies.Entrust our life in God' hand.
In the afternoon, Dr. Dominic Yung led us through a chronology of Christ movies, beginning with the silent movie "From the manger to the Cross" of 1912 upto the realistic "The Passion of Christ" in 2004. It was an eye-opening experience for us. Thus, we finished this 21-hour seminar and celebrated the Sunday mass in the chapel.
Dear Lord, I pray that I may be able to make good use of these movies clips to motivate my students to explore the deeper meaning of life and to discover You will. Amen.
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