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“One of the most important filmmakers in the world today.” —National Public Radio
When Jia Zhangke (born 1970) visited SFMOMA and BAMPFA for a whirlwind trip in February 2019, we extended an invitation to him to return to UC Berkeley and participate in a filmmaker residency that would allow Bay Area filmgoers and the campus community an opportunity to hear him speak about his films over the course of a week. We are delighted that this visit will occur on November 7–13, with Jia participating in a series of onstage conversations. We will journey with him through the work he has made across an extremely consequential period of modern Chinese history—1995 to present.
Born and raised in the dusty mining town of Fenyang, Shanxi Province (a region he returns to in nearly all his work), Jia studied painting and literature before gaining admission to the Beijing Film Academy. His feature debut, Xiao Wu, earned the prestigious Dragons and Tigers Prize at the 1997 Vancouver Film Festival, starting a cascade of praise and awards that included Venice’s Golden Lion (Still Life, 2006), Cannes’s Best Screenplay (A Touch of Sin, 2013), and inclusion in the competition for Cannes’s Palme d’Or (Ash Is Purest White, 2018; Caught by the Tides, 2024). In 2017 Jia and Marco Müller cofounded the Pingyao International Film Festival in Shanxi Province, which continues to this day.
One of the leaders of the Sixth Generation of Chinese filmmakers, Jia has managed to work independently, often with international financing, and was an early adopter of HD video, allowing him greater creative freedom from the more restrictive state-sanctioned film studios. Jia’s films reflect a contemporary China in constant change. Working in narrative and documentary, he creates works that center on the tension between tradition and globalization and present a remarkable chronicle of China’s recent history.
—Susan Oxtoby, Director of Film and Senior Film Curator