Man in Black

One of the most important Chinese contemporary filmmakers meets one of the most important modern Chinese classical composers, in a film that allows the naked flesh to narrate hidden aspects of human history. The film exhibits the body and soul of Wang Xilin, an 86-year-old dissident artist, scarred by a life of suffering, a "man in black" who is yet still capable of deep and sincere compassion. With excerpts from his symphonies, he revisits some of the horrifying events that still live on in his memory, as testimony to an era that saw the dehumanization of the Chinese nation. Wang Bing, in turn, leaves aside his affinity for the long cinematic form to compress in an hour-long film the fragility of the diverse temporalities of struggle.

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Direction: Wang Bing

Cinematography: Caroline Champetier

Editing: Claire Atherton

Sound: Erwan Kerzanet, Emmanuel Soland

Actors: Wang Xilin

Production: Gladys Glover, WIL Productions

Producers: K. Lihong, Sonia Buchman, Nicolas R. De La Mothe

Co-production: Louverture Films, Goodman Gallery, Le Fresnoy - Studio national des arts contemporains

Executive producer: Karin Chien, Liza Essers

Format: DCP

Color: Color

Production Country: France, USA, UK

Production Year: 2023

Duration: 60'

Contact: Asian Shadows

Awards/Distinctions: Best Cinematography in a Feature-Length Documentary Film - Manaki Brothers IFF 2023

Wang Bing

Filmography

2003 West of the Tracks
2007 Fengming, a Chinese Memoir
2010 The Ditch (fiction)
2012 Three Sisters
2013 ’Til Madness Do Us Part
2016 Ta’ang
2016 Bitter Money
2017 Mrs Fang
2018 Dead Souls
2023 Youth (Spring)
2023 Man in Black