A work in constant progress (and occasional regress).
Alias:
Bing Wang
Wáng Bīng
Ван Бин
王兵
Birthplace:
Xi'an, Shaanxi Province, China
Born:
November 16, 1967
Wang Bing (Chinese: 王兵; pinyin: Wáng Bīng; born 16 November, 1967; Xi'an) is a Chinese documentary director, often referred to as one of the foremost figures in documentary film-making. Wang is the founder of his own production company, Wang Bing Studios, which produces most of his films. His movie on Chinese labour camps, "The Ditch", was included in the 2010 Venice Film Festival as the film sorpresa. He began his career as an independent filmmaker in 1999. Discovered in 2003, "West of Tracks", an enormous documentary work of more than 9 hours, has garnered great success internationally. In addition to his feature documentaries, he is also active in video installation, fiction film and photography. His movie on Chinese labour camps, "The Ditch", was included in the 67th Venice Film Festival (2010) as the film sorpresa. His movie "Youth (Spring)" was selected to compete for the Palme d'Or at the 76th Cannes Film Festival (2023). Tie Xi Qu, Wang's 9 hour epic documentary of industrial China, was considered a major success. Tie Xi Qu went on to win the Grand Prix at the Marseille Festival of Documentary Film and was shown for the first time in Spain at the Punto de Vista International Documentary Film Festival. Wang's film Fengming, a Chinese Memoir, premiered at both Cannes and Toronto in 2007. Crude Oil premiered at the 2008 Rotterdam Film Festival. Since then, his films became a staple at every prestigious international film festival. 2017's Mrs. Fang was awarded the Golden Leopard at the 70th Locarno Festival. French philosopher Georges Didi-Huberman dedicated a long epilogue to Wang Bing in his 2012 book, Peuples exposés, peuples figurants. He reflects on the social fate of images thoroughly analyzing Wang's 2010 Man with No Name, writing that the director, as a humble portrait artist of a single rural worker, manages to represent the whole of China's people (as well as people from all over the World) "not through his past, nor his ideas, nor his name, nor his place in society, but through the simple gestures with which he works at his solitary life", as opposed to the common epic portraits of national identity based on military prowess, war heroes and manifest destinies.
Cinematography:
2009 Coal Money
2010 Man With No Name
Director:
2003 Tie Xi Qu: West of the Tracks
2007 Brutality Factory
2007 Fengming: A Chinese Memoir
2007 The State of the World
2008 Crude Oil
2009 Cinematic Correspondences: Jaime Rosales - Wang Bing
2009 Coal Money
2009 Happy Valley
2010 Man With No Name
2010 The Ditch
2010 The Ways of the World: Vol. 1
2012 Three Sisters
2013 Alone
2013 Venice 70: Future Reloaded
2014 'Til Madness Do Us Part
2014 Father and Sons
2014 Traces
2016 Ta'ang
2017 15 Hours
2017 Mrs. Fang
2018 Beauty Lives in Freedom
2018 Bitter Money
2018 Dead Souls
2023 Man in Black
2023 Youth (Spring)
2024 Youth (Hard Times)
2024 Youth (Homecoming)
???? I Come From Ikotun
Director of Photography:
2003 Tie Xi Qu: West of the Tracks
2007 Brutality Factory
2007 Fengming: A Chinese Memoir
2007 The State of the World
2008 Crude Oil
2009 Cinematic Correspondences: Jaime Rosales - Wang Bing
2009 Coal Money
2009 Happy Valley
2010 Man With No Name
2010 The Ditch
2010 The Ways of the World: Vol. 1
2012 Three Sisters
2013 Alone
2013 Venice 70: Future Reloaded
2014 'Til Madness Do Us Part
2014 Father and Sons
2014 Traces
2016 Ta'ang
2017 15 Hours
2017 Mrs. Fang
2018 Beauty Lives in Freedom
2018 Bitter Money
2018 Dead Souls
2023 Man in Black
2023 Youth (Spring)
2024 Youth (Hard Times)
2024 Youth (Homecoming)
???? I Come From Ikotun
Editor:
2003 Tie Xi Qu: West of the Tracks
2007 Brutality Factory
2007 Fengming: A Chinese Memoir
2007 The State of the World
2008 Crude Oil
2009 Cinematic Correspondences: Jaime Rosales - Wang Bing
2009 Coal Money
2009 Happy Valley
2010 Man With No Name
2010 The Ditch
2010 The Ways of the World: Vol. 1
2012 Three Sisters
2013 Alone
2013 Venice 70: Future Reloaded
2014 'Til Madness Do Us Part
2014 Father and Sons
2014 Traces
2016 Ta'ang
2017 15 Hours
2017 Mrs. Fang
2018 Beauty Lives in Freedom
2018 Bitter Money
2018 Dead Souls
2023 Man in Black
2023 Youth (Spring)
2024 Youth (Hard Times)
2024 Youth (Homecoming)
???? I Come From Ikotun
Producer:
2003 Tie Xi Qu: West of the Tracks
2007 Brutality Factory
2007 Fengming: A Chinese Memoir
2007 The State of the World
2008 Crude Oil
2009 Cinematic Correspondences: Jaime Rosales - Wang Bing
2009 Coal Money
2009 Happy Valley
2010 Man With No Name
2010 The Ditch
2010 The Ways of the World: Vol. 1
2012 Three Sisters
2013 Alone
2013 Venice 70: Future Reloaded
2014 'Til Madness Do Us Part
2014 Father and Sons
2014 Traces
2016 Ta'ang
2017 15 Hours
2017 Mrs. Fang
2018 Beauty Lives in Freedom
2018 Bitter Money
2018 Dead Souls
2023 Man in Black
2023 Youth (Spring)
2024 Youth (Hard Times)
2024 Youth (Homecoming)
???? I Come From Ikotun
Research Assistant:
1993 1966, My Time in the Red Guards
2003 Tie Xi Qu: West of the Tracks
2007 Brutality Factory
2007 Fengming: A Chinese Memoir
2007 The State of the World
2008 Crude Oil
2009 Cinematic Correspondences: Jaime Rosales - Wang Bing
2009 Coal Money
2009 Happy Valley
2010 Man With No Name
2010 The Ditch
2010 The Ways of the World: Vol. 1
2012 Three Sisters
2013 Alone
2013 Venice 70: Future Reloaded
2014 'Til Madness Do Us Part
2014 Father and Sons
2014 Traces
2016 Ta'ang
2017 15 Hours
2017 Mrs. Fang
2018 Beauty Lives in Freedom
2018 Bitter Money
2018 Dead Souls
2023 Man in Black
2023 Youth (Spring)
2024 Youth (Hard Times)
2024 Youth (Homecoming)
???? I Come From Ikotun
Screenplay:
1993 1966, My Time in the Red Guards
2003 Tie Xi Qu: West of the Tracks
2007 Brutality Factory
2007 Fengming: A Chinese Memoir
2007 The State of the World
2008 Crude Oil
2009 Cinematic Correspondences: Jaime Rosales - Wang Bing
2009 Coal Money
2009 Happy Valley
2010 Man With No Name
2010 The Ditch
2010 The Ways of the World: Vol. 1
2012 Three Sisters
2013 Alone
2013 Venice 70: Future Reloaded
2014 'Til Madness Do Us Part
2014 Father and Sons
2014 Traces
2016 Ta'ang
2017 15 Hours
2017 Mrs. Fang
2018 Beauty Lives in Freedom
2018 Bitter Money
2018 Dead Souls
2023 Man in Black
2023 Youth (Spring)
2024 Youth (Hard Times)
2024 Youth (Homecoming)
???? I Come From Ikotun
Sound:
1993 1966, My Time in the Red Guards
2003 Tie Xi Qu: West of the Tracks
2007 Brutality Factory
2007 Fengming: A Chinese Memoir
2007 The State of the World
2008 Crude Oil
2009 Cinematic Correspondences: Jaime Rosales - Wang Bing
2009 Coal Money
2009 Happy Valley
2010 Man With No Name
2010 The Ditch
2010 The Ways of the World: Vol. 1
2012 Three Sisters
2013 Alone
2013 Venice 70: Future Reloaded
2014 'Til Madness Do Us Part
2014 Father and Sons
2014 Traces
2016 Ta'ang
2017 15 Hours
2017 Mrs. Fang
2018 Beauty Lives in Freedom
2018 Bitter Money
2018 Dead Souls
2023 Man in Black
2023 Youth (Spring)
2024 Youth (Hard Times)
2024 Youth (Homecoming)
???? I Come From Ikotun
Writer:
1993 1966, My Time in the Red Guards
2003 Tie Xi Qu: West of the Tracks
2007 Brutality Factory
2007 Fengming: A Chinese Memoir
2007 The State of the World
2008 Crude Oil
2009 Cinematic Correspondences: Jaime Rosales - Wang Bing
2009 Coal Money
2009 Happy Valley
2009 Tiananmen
2010 Man With No Name
2010 The Ditch
2010 The Ways of the World: Vol. 1
2012 Three Sisters
2013 Alone
2013 Venice 70: Future Reloaded
2014 'Til Madness Do Us Part
2014 Father and Sons
2014 Traces
2016 Ta'ang
2017 15 Hours
2017 Mrs. Fang
2018 Beauty Lives in Freedom
2018 Bitter Money
2018 Dead Souls
2023 Man in Black
2023 Youth (Spring)
2024 Youth (Hard Times)
2024 Youth (Homecoming)
???? I Come From Ikotun
Most data and links to images for the Movies section come from TheMovieDB (TMDB).
Additional data for Film Titles come from The Open Movie Database (OMDb).
At least one plug-in comes from IMDb.
Data are -- hey, it's a plural -- subject to the limitations of their sources. (For example, TMDB search results currently max out at 20.) I am limiting myself to free data sources for now. (No, a "free trial" is not free.)
While much of the above data are retrieved directly from outside APIs and other such sources, data from American Film Institute (AFI) and British Film Institute (BFI) were manually entered the old fashioned way into a MySQL database. Re BFI I took the following liberties:
Regarding profile removals and data corrections:
Filtering is applied here to film projects flagged as "adult" by TheMovieDB. Pending "popular demand" I am contemplating a login and profile system with preferences (such as whether to allow adult images to appear) and permissions (such as data entry).
Whereas the overall purpose of this website is to serve as a personal demo/portfolio/workshop of web and data skills, this Movies section is not meant to compete with or substitute for far more definitive movie websites.
Whether or not he still clings to an award which he won in 1986 as a film critic for his college's newspaper, Jeffrey Hartmann is not responsible for the texts of overviews and biographies supplied by external data sources.