One Day the Mountain Will Fly Away
Watch the full-length film on Vimeo. A Video Essay by
Echo Ho (2003)
Length 49 min
This video essay draws inspiration from the Tibetan legend of the Flying Mountain, tracing cycles of serendipity and encounters with people, events, and landscapes in northeastern Tibet. Each element exists in its own reality. Ultimately, they are connected with the legend "One day the mountain will fly away"; the flying mountain arrives from a distant land to restore order within chaos but can leave as suddenly as it came, ushering in times of decline and upheaval. This departure becomes a metaphor for humanity's collective transitions, losses, and hopes for a better future. Ho employs experimental sound and music composition, merging a flux of video-graphical movements. The footage was shot on Mini DV and Super 8 film cameras, an analogue photo camera, and Hi 8 found footage from a Chinese couple. The narrative is a recollected story oscillating between the vast openness of waved landscapes and personal, spiritually resonant reflections imbued with a sacred force that coexists in mundane human affairs. The video essay invites the audience to travel through the artist's encounters, imagining a more relevant legend in our transient modern world. The film is like watching a mirage of that Flying
Mountain.
Writer and Director: Echo Ho
Camera: Andreas Hirsch & Echo Ho
Sound Recording: Hannes Hölzl & Echo Ho
Film Editing: Echo Ho
Editing Assistant: Christine Moser
Sound Design & Music: Hannes Hölzl Sound Mixing: Judith Nordbrock
Set Photography: Xiaoshan He
Special Thanks: Maria Danay, for her generous donation to support Tibetan children in the village where we filmed. Sanji Gimtsos and his family. This film is dedicated to all Tibetans and Tibetan friends.
Production: KHM 2003
Poem written and spoken by Anthony Moore