This week on the Film at Lincoln Center podcast, we’re revisiting our conversation with Jia Zhangke from the 58th New York Film Festival, moderated by NYFF programmer K. Austin Collins, in anticipation of the filmmaker’s latest feature, Swimming Out Till the Sea Turns Blue, which is now playing in our theaters.
The preeminent cinematic chronicler of 21st-century China, Jia Zhangke turns his sights to the more distant past in his surprising, complexly wrought new documentary. In Shanxi province, where Jia grew up, the filmmaker gathers three prominent authors to create a tapestry of testimonies about the drastic changes in Chinese life and culture that began with the social revolution of the ’50s. Jia tells a wide-ranging, discursive story that functions as a reminder of the essential power of verbally passing down history to future generations.
Continue the conversation with the filmmaker by tuning into a virtual live discussion on June 2 at 8PM, hosted by the Asia Society. Go to filmlinc.org/swimming for tickets and more information.