Nanfu Wang
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“I Grow as I Make a Film”: Nanfu Wang on Her HBO Documentary, Night Is Not Eternal
It’s a bit surprising to think that when I last interviewed Nanfu Wang it was for her six-part HBO docuseries Mind Over Murder, which revisited an infamous case of justice gone haywire in a small town in Nebraska back in the 1980s. Which, in terms of subject matter, is a far cry from this year’s followup (also for HBO). Night Is Not Eternal is a deep character study, a format the acclaimed director has long embraced, that charts the rise of Rosa Maria Paya, daughter of Oswaldo Paya, a five-time Nobel Peace Prize-nominated activist assassinated by the Cuban government in 2012. […]
by Lauren Wissot on Nov 20, 2024 -
“I Never Saw This as a ‘True Crime’ Series”: Nanfu Wang on HBO Docuseries Mind Over Murder
One of the more surprising revelations in the provocatively titled six-part docuseries Mind Over Murder has nothing to do with the sad tale presented onscreen of the “Beatrice Six,” as the three men and three women convicted (and ultimately absolved) of killing a beloved grandma in Beatrice, Nebraska back in 1985 came to be known. Instead, the surprise comes when the end credits disclose the story is being revisited by none other than critically-acclaimed director Nanfu Wang (In the Same Breath, One Child Nation), not exactly a usual suspect for the sensationalist true crime genre. Then again, Wang doesn’t seem much interested […]
by Lauren Wissot on Jun 22, 2022 -
“News Would Disappear Off Social Media”: Nanfu Wang on COVID Documentary In the Same Breath
Given the amount of turmoil, despair, anger, and loss we’ve experienced during the COVID-19 pandemic, it’s fair to say that the past two years have been the longest 20 years of our lives. As breaking news changed rapidly and information was uncovered, the severity of the virus came into focus. As dangerous as COVID-19 was (and, given the acceleration of mutated variants, how dangerous it continues to be), just as damaging was the misinformation being spread by various government-sanctioned media and harebrained conspiracy theorists. Nanfu Wang’s latest documentary, In the Same Breath, covers the entire gamut and, per her signature style, […]
by Erik Luers on Aug 23, 2021 -
“The Scope of the Story Also Expanded”: Director Nanfu Wang | In the Same Breath
How did events of 2020—any of them—change your film, either in the way you approached it, produced it, post-produced it, or are now thinking about it? In the Same Breath is a product of 2020. The project was developed in response to events from the very beginning of the year in Wuhan, and as the year unfolded and the impact of the virus was felt just about everywhere on Earth, the scope of the story also expanded. Every new day, in my personal life as well as in the making of this film, I was forced to adapt to the […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jan 28, 2021 -
“We Decided to Treat the Policy and the Propaganda as if They Were Also Human Characters”: Nanfu Wang and Jialing Zhang on One Child Nation
One Child Nation, winner of this year’s Sundance U.S. Grand Jury Prize (and premiering theatrically August 9th via Amazon Studios), is a striking cinematic examination of China’s three-and-a-half decade long, one-child policy by filmmakers Nanfu Wang (Hooligan Sparrow, I Am Another You) and Jialing Zhang (Complicit). It’s also a stunning uncovering of the multi-layered machinations required for a government to negate reproductive autonomy. And ironically, as the NYC-based Wang herself points out towards the end of the film, advocates of China’s (now defunct) policy and the US’s (very much alive) anti-abortion stance both subscribe to a core belief in state […]
by Lauren Wissot on Aug 8, 2019 -
“A Railway Police Officer Came to Question Her”: Directors Nanfu Wang and Jialing Zhang | One Child Nation
Whenever directors watch their own films, they always do so with the knowledge that there are moments that occurred during their production — whether that’s in the financing and development or shooting or post — that required incredible ingenuity, skill, planning or just plain luck, but whose difficulty is invisible to most spectators. These are the moments directors are often the most proud of, and that pride comes with the knowledge that no one on the outside could ever properly appreciate what went into them. So, we ask: “What hidden part of your film are you most privately proud of […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jan 26, 2019 -
SXSW 2017: Nanfu Wang’s I Am Another You and Jason Cortlund & Julia Halperin’s La Barracuda
While resisting the urge to hyperbolically and lazily link any one film I see at this year’s SXSW to another, allow me to quickly note that Nanfu Wang’s I Am Another You (a world premiere in the Documentary Feature Competition section) and Julia Halperin and Jason Cortlund’s La Barracuda (which world premiered in Narrative Feature Competition) are, at their core, about women voluntarily visiting a piece of America foreign to them (Florida and Texas, respectively) to reveal their bare selves in the process. Wang is from China, the character of Sinoloa is from England; both come to town with a purpose that may not always be clear, […]
by Erik Luers on Mar 20, 2017 -
Remembering My First IFP Film Week Experience
This will be my second time participating in IFP Film Week. Last year, I attended with my first film, Hooligan Sparrow, which was in post-production and later premiered at Sundance in January. Before IFP Film Week Last year, I knew nothing about the film industry (and I’m still learning now). Many of the people and companies I met with were unfamiliar to me. Immediately after receiving my meeting schedule, I spent half a day researching who was who, what they did, and what films they worked on. Most of this information was available through simple Google searches. I wrote down […]
by Nanfu Wang on Sep 18, 2016 -
Director/DP Nanfu Wang on Sundance Doc Hooligan Sparrow and the Perils of Political Filmmaking in China
Nanfu Wang makes her debut as a feature film director and cinematographer in Hooligan Sparrow, a documentary profile of human rights activist Ye Haiyan. The film, which participated in IFP’s Filmmaker Lab and the Sundance Institute’s Creative Producing Summit and Lab, is the work of a self-proclaimed “one-woman-band.” Here, Wang discusses her many run-ins with government agents and the intimidation she felt as a filmmaker highlighting political dissent in China. Filmmaker: How and why did you wind up being the cinematographer of your film? What were the factors and attributes that led to your being hired for this job? Wang: When I […]
by Soheil Rezayazdi on Jan 23, 2016 -
“I Never Expected to Be Attacked by Screaming Mobs”: Director Nanfu Wang | Hooligan Sparrow
In every film, there is the story that you knew you were telling, the story the audience perceives. But there is always some other story, a secret story. It might be the result of your hidden motivations for making the film, or, instead, the result of themes that only became clear to you after you made the movie. It might be something very personal, or it might be a story you didn’t even know you were telling. What is your film’s secret story? This is a not a film that I planned to make. When I started this film, I […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Jan 22, 2016
