Minding the Gap

Director: Bing Liu

Country: USA

Year of production: 2018

Duration: 98 min

Subject:

Children's rights

Audience:

Employees of penitentiary system
Institutions of the state penitentiary system of Ukraine
Lawyers
Pupils
Students
Journalists
Activists / NGOs
Teachers
Government officials

Reform:

Inclusive component:

What he also captures is the abruptness with which they are catapulted into adulthood, with its dead-end jobs, babies, and reflections on what it actually means to be a man. Years later he returns to his hometown to find out what has happened to his friends. The director breaks pretty much every rule of documentary filming: he appears in his own film, and sometimes talks directly to camera. At one point Minding the Gap even resembles a therapy session, with the filmmaker processing the abuse he suffered from his father and warning his friend Zack that he’s in danger of ending up in the same vicious circle of alcoholism and violence. But Liu comes through with flying colours, because everything about this film is authentic. He uses it to paint a very topical portrait of an American generation that’s in danger of being forgotten.

director

Bing Liu

Bing Liu is a 30-year-old Chicago-based filmmaker whose critically acclaimed documentary Minding the Gap has earned over 50 award recognitions since its premiere at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival, where it took home the Special Jury Award for Breakthrough Filmmaking. He directed three storylines on America To Me, a 10-hour series from Steve James that examines racial inequities in the U.S. education system. Bing is a member of the Directors’ Guild of America and was a former member of the International Cinematographers’ Guild. Bing Liu is a 2017 Film Independent Fellow and Garrett Scott Development Grant recipient, and graduated magna cum laude with a B.A. in Literature from the University of Illinois at Chicago.