Nanfu Wang
Nanfu Wang | |
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| Vương nam phục | |
 Wang at the 2019Montclair Film Festival | |
| Born | 1985 (age 38–39) |
| Occupation | Documentary filmmaker |
| Nanfu Wang | |||||||||
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| Chinese | Vương nam phục | ||||||||
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Nanfu Wang(born 1985) is a Chinese-born American filmmaker. Her debut filmHooligan Sparrowpremiered at the2016 Sundance Film Festivaland was shortlisted for theAcademy Award for Best Documentary Featurein 2017. Her second film,I Am Another You,premiered atSXSW Film Festivalin 2017 and won two special jury awards, and her third film,One Child Nation,won the Grand Jury Prize for Documentary Feature at the2019 Sundance Film Festival.Wang is the recipient of a 2021 Vilcek Prize for Creative Promise in Filmmaking, from theVilcek Foundation.[1][2]
Early life[edit]
Wang was born in a small, rural farming village in 1985 inJiangxi Province, China.[3]Her parents named her "Wang Nanfu" (Chinese:Vương nam phục), as Nan ( nam ) means man and Fu ( phục ) means pillar in Mandarin, hoping that the girl would grow up strong like a man.[4]She has a younger brother who is several years younger; growing up, she felt ostracized by her classmates for having a sibling as most of her classmates wereonly childrenas a result of the One Child Policy in place at the time in China. When Wang was 12 years old,[note 1]her father (33 years old at the time) died from congenital heart disease which their family could not afford to get medical treatment for. She was forced to drop out of school to work so she could support her family. Wang's family could not afford to send both her and her brother to secondary education.[5]Instead, she enrolled herself in avocational schooland eventually started working as a teacher for primary school-age children.[3]
Education[edit]
With several years of work experience, Wang studied English literature at a local university'scontinuing education program.After that, she was granted a full fellowship fromShanghai Universitywhile enrolled in a graduate program for English language and literature.[6]Later, she became interested in film while studying atOhio Universityand later atNew York University.[3]She holds Master's degrees inEnglish Literature(Shanghai University),Media Studies(Ohio University,E. W. Scripps School of Journalism), and Documentary Filmmaking (New York University,Tisch School of the Arts).[2]
Career and work[edit]
Hooligan Sparrow[edit]
Hooligan Sparrowwas Wang's first feature documentary. It tells the story of Chinese human rights activists, includingYe Haiyan(the titular "Hooligan Sparrow" ), fighting to bring accountability to government officials who allegedly sexually assaulted several young girls. As Wang films the activists, she herself becomes the subject of harassment from state actors responding to her efforts to document the activists' work.
Wang has stated that she created the film because, “I was interested in many, many topics like the healthcare system and the educational system in China because I didn’t go to high school or college in China. Another topic that interested me was sex workers because, like I said, I grew up in a village and I had seen a lot of women from the village who didn’t have access to education and they end up becoming sex workers because they did not have skills, they did not have education and they were really discriminated against. So, I wanted to make a film about the poorest sex workers in the country, but I also knew that it would be hard to get access to them. I’ve known Hooligan Sparrow–her name is Ye Haiyan–for a long time through social media, but I had never seen her in person at the time.”[7]
When creating the film Wang was not aware that this would make her a target for government surveillance, later stating that she "knew very little about the activist world".[7]Wang has noted that her family and friends were followed and interrogated by officers who questioned whether or not they knew her, her whereabouts, and her current actions.[7]
One Child Nation[edit]
Her 2019 documentaryOne Child Nationexamines the consequences of China'sone-child policy,which was implemented from 1979 to 2015.
In the Same Breath[edit]
Her 2021 documentaryIn the Same Breathlooks athow the Chinese governmentandthe American government reactedto the outbreak of theCOVID-19 pandemic.
Mind Over Murder[edit]
Wang directedMind Over Murder,a 2022 documentary which examined the case of theBeatrice Six,a group of six individuals falsely found guilty of the rape and murder of a Nebraska woman.[8]
Major contributions and awards[edit]
Wang's filmHooligan Sparrowscreened at festivals in over 25 countries includingSundance,Hot Docs,Sheffield DocFest,Full Frame,andHuman Rights Watch Film Festival.[9]Her filmI Am Another Youpremiered at SXSW in 2017 and won theLUNA/Chicken & EggAward for Best Documentary Feature directed by a woman and the SXSW Special Jury Award for Excellence in Documentary Storytelling.[9]Wang is a recipient of theSundance InstituteDocumentary Fund and Bertha /BritdocJournalism Fund as well as a Sundance-supported andIFP-supported filmmaker.[3]Hooligan Sparrowwas placed on the shortlist for theAcademy Award for Best Documentary Feature Filmat the2016 Oscars.[10]Wang was honored by theInternational Documentary Associationwith the 2016 Emerging Filmmaker Award.[9][6]Her third feature,One Child Nation,won the Grand Jury Prize for Documentary Feature at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival. Wang was awarded a 2021 Vilcek Prize for Creative Promise in Filmmaking by theVilcek Foundation,"for the impact and courage of her riveting documentaries".[11][2]
Wang was one of 21 recipients of theMacArthur Fellowshipin 2020.[12]
In 2021 she was selected as a Jury member for theBIFFMecenat Award at the26th Busan International Film Festivalto be held in October.[13]
In December 2021, she was included in the list ofBBC's100 Women of 2021.[14]
Personal life[edit]
Wang is married and mother of two boys (born c. 2017 and 2022). She resides inNew Jersey.[5]
Notes[edit]
- ^One source reports her age as 11 at the time[5]but Asian cultures sometimes maycount age as one year more than Western culture would
References[edit]
- ^"Vilcek Foundation Awards $250,000 in Prizes to Immigrant Filmmakers".Vilcek Foundation.8 September 2020.Archivedfrom the original on 18 September 2020.Retrieved10 September2020– viaPR Newswire.
- ^abc"Nanfu Wang".Vilcek Foundation.Archivedfrom the original on 27 September 2020.Retrieved10 September2020.
- ^abcd"Nanfu Wang".Rocky Mountain Women's Film Festival.Archived fromthe originalon 22 April 2018.Retrieved29 March2018.
- ^Dargis, Manohla(9 August 2019)."'One Child Nation' Review: Controlling Minds and Bodies ".The New York Times.Archivedfrom the original on 10 November 2019.Retrieved10 November2019.
- ^abcZhang, Han (27 August 2019)."In" One Child Nation, "Nanfu Wang Confronts China's History, and Her Own".The New Yorker.Archivedfrom the original on 24 September 2020.Retrieved28 March2020.
- ^abFeng, Emily (17 October 2016)."'Hooligan Sparrow' Fights For Justice For Sexually Assaulted Schoolgirls ".Goats and Soda.NPR.Archived fromthe originalon 25 May 2022.Retrieved3 October2022.
- ^abcBlyth, Antonia (27 December 2016)."'Hooligan Sparrow's Nanfu Wang On The Stacked Odds Of Exposing Corruption In China: "Every Day I Was Pretty Afraid"".Deadline Hollywood.Archivedfrom the original on 22 April 2018.Retrieved29 March2018.
- ^Schaefer, Stephen (20 June 2022)."Filmmaker Nanfu Wang spotlights notorious 1985 crime in HBO series 'Mind Over Murder'".Boston Herald.Archived fromthe originalon 21 June 2022.Retrieved3 October2022.
- ^abc"ABOUT THE FILMMAKERS".I Am Another You.Archivedfrom the original on 22 April 2018.Retrieved29 March2018.
- ^Benutty, John (8 December 2016)."Oscars 2017 documentary feature shortlist: 'Hooligan Sparrow' is a daring and timely look at political protest".Gold Derby.Archivedfrom the original on 28 April 2018.Retrieved27 April2018.
- ^"Announcing the 2021 Vilcek Foundation Prizewinners".Vilcek Foundation.7 September 2020.Archivedfrom the original on 8 September 2020.Retrieved10 September2020.
- ^Jacobs, Julia (6 October 2020)."MacArthur 'Genius' Grant Winners for 2020: The Full List".The New York Times.ISSN0362-4331.Archivedfrom the original on 6 October 2020.Retrieved6 October2020.
- ^Kim, Ji-won (24 August 2021)."부산영화제 지석상·비프메세나상·선재상 심사위원 발표…미래 이끌 신인 찾는다"[Busan Film Festival Ji Seok Award, BIFF Mecenat Award, Son Jae Award Jury Announcement… Looking for new talent to lead the future].Ten Asia(in Korean).Naver.Archivedfrom the original on 24 August 2021.Retrieved24 August2021.
- ^"BBC 100 Women 2021: Who is on the list this year?".BBC.7 December 2021. Archived fromthe originalon 8 September 2022.Retrieved7 December2021.
External links[edit]
- Nanfu WangatIMDb
- Nanfu WangonX
- Nanfu WangonInstagram
- Nanfu WangatRotten Tomatoes
- Keynote Talk: Nanfu Wang,International Documentary Association's Getting Real Conference 2022Archived
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