Sundance Special Jury Award-winning Minding the Gap by Bing Liu will make its International premiere at the CPH:DOX international competition, Next:Wave, a newly created competition "dedicated to emerging filmmakers with the courage to take chances." The fest runs March 15-25 in Copenhagen. The winner of Next:Wave will be found by a jury and announced at CPH:DOX's Award Ceremony on March 23.
Find the full list of nominees for the Next:Wave Award 2018 here.
"We are in Rockford, Illinois – in the heart of the American rust belt – where Zack, Keire and Bing kill time skating around the city and partying. The deep friendship of the small trio is the core of Bing Liu's formidable debut and Sundance darling, where every choice in life – both right and wrong – closes one door and opens a new one. For even though their friends feel more like a family than their own families, all three of them have their own demons to fight with on the home front. Fathers die, others become fathers without wanting to, and the years go by and more doors close behind them. 'Minding the Gap' is a film created with youthful energy, but with an impressive level of maturity and insight. Bing Liu will not be one of the great filmmakers in the future. He already is one." – CPH:DOX
The film stunned at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival, world premiering to a sold-out crowd and earning the filmmakers' the US Documentary Jury Award for Breakthrough Filmmaking. An onslaught of praise quickly followed, deeming the film one of the very best to come out of the fest and Liu a revelatory talent.
Praise for Minding the Gap
“A few bold-faced names to watch come out of every Sundance, and here’s a major one: Bing Liu, who directed, co-edited, co-produced, shot, and co-stars in this (often uncomfortably) intimate documentary… Liu has a gift for montage and a confident way with his camera, and the emotional heft of this debut is quietly overwhelming.”
– Jason Bailey, Flavorwire - The Best Documentaries of the 2018 Sundance Film Festival
"Incredibly powerful...the work of a filmmaker willing to acknowledge that sometimes, seeing better, seeing differently, is more important than understanding."
– Bilge Ebiri, The Village Voice
“Bing Liu's impressive documentary feature debut is a revealing look at skateboarding and toxic masculinity…. Marks an audacious feature debut on all levels…This edition
of the festival has marked him as a storyteller to watch."
– Daniel Fienberg, The Hollywood Reporter
"This year's Sundance may well be defined by the host of innovative ways filmmakers found to tell personal stories...the most touching of these self-reflexive projects was Bing Liu's intimate look at a pair of childhood friends he's been filming for nearly a decade."
– Peter Debruge, Variety
"Often troubling and deeply moving, a story about the ways that generational violence and poverty affect families and cities...as a work of nonfiction, it's stunning; as a piece of storytelling, it's heartbreaking."
– Alissa Wilkinson, Vox.com: 7 Sundance documentaries to watch for in 2018
"Powerful and intimate...a tour de force of documentary filmmaking."
–John Fink, The Film Stage
“‘Burden' and 'Minding the Gap' are among the best movies coming out of Park City… Bing Liu’s deeply felt look at himself and his skateboarding pals, Zack and Keire, is an intense story about the repeating cycle of domestic violence in a depressed town. Liu’s camerawork and editing are amazing.” ★★★★
– Sean Means, The Salt Lake Tribune
“What starts as a movie about slackers lighting off fireworks and drinking beers on rooftops becomes a nuanced, carefully modulated study of domestic abuse,
particularly the way violence cycles through generations of family members. It's a thoughtful film about race and class, too.”
– Dan Jackson, Thrillist: The Best Movies from Sundance 2018
The film next screens at the Big Sky Documentary Film Festival on February 23 at 6:30PM.
Follow Minding the Gap on Twitter and Facebook. Visit the official website at mindingthegapfilm.com.