The Everlasting Flame

For the Games of the XXIX Olympiad Beijing 2008, the China Central Newsreel and Documentary Film Studio chose Gu Jun, a young filmmaker and graduate of the prestigious Beijing Film Academy. She had already made a widely praised documentary about the preparations for these Games, and so she could embark confidently on the official film. The Everlasting Flame strikes an adroit balance between the intimate and the spectacular. Gu starts by flitting between various places around the world where individual athletes are training for the Olympic Games: the Essen Canoe Club in Germany; a BMX club in Houston, Texas; Kingston, Jamaica, with Asafa Powell, the pre-Games favorite for the 100 meters; Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, the home of Haile Gebrselassie; and Iran, where tae kwon do specialists are in practice. Then she segues into the strategizing and rehearsing for the Opening Ceremony.