Liu Jiayin | |
|---|---|
| Born | (1981-08-20)20 August 1981 (age 43)[1] Beijing, China |
| Alma mater | Beijing Film Academy |
| Occupation | Film director |
| Notable work | Oxhide (2005) |
| Liu Jiayin | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Simplified Chinese | 刘伽茵 | ||||||
| Traditional Chinese | 劉伽茵 | ||||||
| |||||||
Liu Jiayin (born 20 August 1981) is a Chinese independent filmmaker and educator fromBeijing. She directed two experimental features combiningdocumentary and narrative elements,Oxhide (2005) andOxhide II (2009), both of which received international awards.
Liu was called "one of the most exciting and unique talents to emerge from China in the 2000s" byThe Hollywood Reporter,[2] withOxhide being described in 2006 as "the most important Chinese film of the past several years".[3] She has writtentelevision dramas and currently teaches screenwriting at theBeijing Film Academy.[4][5]
Liu aspired to become a filmmaker as early as high school. In 1999, she enrolled in the Beijing Film Academy, majoring in screenwriting.[1] As her graduation project for her master's degree, she completedOxhide, her full-length feature debut. Liu useddigital video and a series oflong takes to stage scenes from the life of her family in their cramped Beijing apartment. Her mother and her father—a struggling skilled leather craftsman whose work material gives the film its title—perform their own parts, alongside the 23-year-old director as herself.[3]
Oxhide screened at the2005 Berlin International Film Festival, where it won the FIPRESCI Prize and Caligari Film Prize. It also screened at theHong Kong International Film Festival, where Liu received the Golden DV Award for best digital work, and at theVancouver International Film Festival, where she received the topDragons and Tigers Award for East Asian cinema.[6][5]
In 2009 Liu finished her second film,Oxhide II. With a similar focus on her family, this "sequel" was seen as more simple 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 eatingjiaozi (Chinese dumplings). A marked contrast not only to commercial film aesthetics but also with other independent films from China,Oxhide II premiered at the 2009Cannes Film Festival as part of its Directors Fortnight program. At the end of the year,Oxhide II was named one of the three masterpieces ofChinese cinema in the 2000s by criticShelly Kraicer.[7]
| Year | English title | Chinese title | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2002 | The Train | 火车 | Short film |
| 2005 | Oxhide | 牛皮 | |
| 2009 | Oxhide II | 牛皮贰 | |
| 2010 | 607 | Short film | |
| 2023 | All Ears | 不虚此行 |
