Born in Xi’an in 1967, Chinese independent filmmaker Wang Bing made his directorial debut with nine-hour documentary Tie Xi Qu: West of the Tracks (2003), chronicling the dismantling of a heavy-industry district in Shenyang at the turn of the millennium. Since then, Wang Bing has been working on two main themes. On the one hand, his documentaries dedicated to the careful observation of common people’s everyday life bring to the screen the few joys and many tribulations of Chinese individuals struggling to make ends meet. On the other hand, his documentaries Fengming: A Chinese Memoir (2007), Dead Souls (2018), Beauty Lives in Freedom: Gao Ertai (2018) and Man in Black (2023), together with his fiction films Brutality Factory (2007) and The Ditch (2010), investigate the waves of brutal political repression that engulfed the People’s Republic of China from the late 1950s to the late 1970s, and beyond. Among the numerous international recognitions Wang Bing received throughout the years are FIDMarseille’s Grand Prix (2003), Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival’s Robert and Frances Flaherty Prize (2003, 2007, 2019), Doclisboa’s City of Lisbon Award (2012, 2014), Locarno Film Festival’s Golden Leopard (2017) and Venice Film Festival’s Horizons Award (2012, 2016).