Liu Jiayin is a Chinese independent filmmaker and educator, born in
Beijing in 1981. She has made two experimental features combining
documentary and narrative elements, Oxhide (2005) and Oxhide II
(2009), both of which received international awards.Liu aspired to
become a filmmaker as early as high school. As her graduation project
at the Beijing Film Academy (BFA), she completed Oxhide, her
full-length feature debut. Liu used digital video and a series of long
takes to stage scenes from the life of her family in their cramped
Beijing apartment. Her mother and her fatherâ€"a struggling skilled
leather craftsman whose work material gives the film its
titleâ€"perform their own parts, alongside the 23-year-old director as
herself. Oxhide was screened in 2005 at the Berlin International Film
Festival, where it took two prizes, including the FIPRESCI Award in
the Forum of New Cinema. It also screened at the Hong Kong
International Film Festival, where Liu received the Golden DV Award
for best digital work, and at the Vancouver International Film
Festival, where she received the top Dragons and Tigers Award for East
Asian cinema.In 2009 Liu finished her second film, Oxhide II. With a
similar focus on her family, this "sequel" was seen as more simple and
radical in construction, employing only nine separate shots in a
running time of over two hours. All the film's narrative occurs in the
real-time process of Liu and her family preparing to make, making,
cooking and eating jiaozi (Chinese dumplings). A marked contrast not
only to commercial film aesthetics but also with other independent
films from China, Oxhide II premiered at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival
as part of its Directors Fortnight program. At the end of the year,
Oxhide II was named one of the three masterpieces of Chinese cinema in
the 2000s decade by critic Shelly Kraicer.Neither of Liu's films
received commercial theatrical distribution, but her works are
distributed in North America digitally by Dgenerate Films. Her works
have also been screened at universities in China and abroad. Today she
teaches in the literature department at BFA.
Beijing in 1981. She has made two experimental features combining
documentary and narrative elements, Oxhide (2005) and Oxhide II
(2009), both of which received international awards.Liu aspired to
become a filmmaker as early as high school. As her graduation project
at the Beijing Film Academy (BFA), she completed Oxhide, her
full-length feature debut. Liu used digital video and a series of long
takes to stage scenes from the life of her family in their cramped
Beijing apartment. Her mother and her fatherâ€"a struggling skilled
leather craftsman whose work material gives the film its
titleâ€"perform their own parts, alongside the 23-year-old director as
herself. Oxhide was screened in 2005 at the Berlin International Film
Festival, where it took two prizes, including the FIPRESCI Award in
the Forum of New Cinema. It also screened at the Hong Kong
International Film Festival, where Liu received the Golden DV Award
for best digital work, and at the Vancouver International Film
Festival, where she received the top Dragons and Tigers Award for East
Asian cinema.In 2009 Liu finished her second film, Oxhide II. With a
similar focus on her family, this "sequel" was seen as more simple and
radical in construction, employing only nine separate shots in a
running time of over two hours. All the film's narrative occurs in the
real-time process of Liu and her family preparing to make, making,
cooking and eating jiaozi (Chinese dumplings). A marked contrast not
only to commercial film aesthetics but also with other independent
films from China, Oxhide II premiered at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival
as part of its Directors Fortnight program. At the end of the year,
Oxhide II was named one of the three masterpieces of Chinese cinema in
the 2000s decade by critic Shelly Kraicer.Neither of Liu's films
received commercial theatrical distribution, but her works are
distributed in North America digitally by Dgenerate Films. Her works
have also been screened at universities in China and abroad. Today she
teaches in the literature department at BFA.
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