In Depth With: FENG Xi & Yung CHANG, with a Screening of China Heavyweight

2:30 PM, Tuesday Aug 13 @ Innis Town Hall

Host: Jane WANG Hui, Assistant Programmer, MulanIFF
Language: English with Chinese translation

FENG Xi collaborated with director Yung CHANG on his award-winning sophomore documentary China Heavyweight (2012) and short documentary Pandemic19 (2020). Following the industry screening of China Heavyweight, they will discuss the collaboration between the director and the editor, and how to set the style of editing, such as adopting editing techniques common for narrative films in this documentary.

Speakers

FENG Xi

FENG Xi is a film editor based in Montreal, Canada. Having lived in China, Canada, and France, she has cultivated a unique blend of cultural and artistic sensitivity. Feng has worked as an editor on feature documentary films including China Heavyweight, Cette Maison, and Caiti Blues. The first fiction film she edited, Universal Language, premiered at Quinzaine des Cineastes at Cannes this year. Her filmography includes films selected and won at prestigious festivals such as Berlinale, Cannes, Sundance, Vision du Réel, HotDocs, and Art of the Reel. She also served as an editing mentor for multiple film festivals and is a Board Member for the Canadian Cinema Editors.

Yung CHANG

Yung CHANG is a Canadian filmmaker currently based in Montreal, where he earned a degree in film production in 1999 from Concordia University. His parents are both first-generation Chinese immigrants to Canada. Through their influence, Yung maintains a strong interest in contemporary Chinese issues. Since 1996, he has spent extended periods in China and has travelled throughout the country. His first documentary film, Earth to Mouth, produced by the National Film Board of Canada, is a beautifully crafted meditation on migrant farm labor, food production and Canada’s Chinese community. It played widely on the international festival circuit, winning awards at the International Film and Video Festival in Columbus, Ohio, and Montreal’s Rencontres Internationales du documentaire. He is also a graduate of the Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre in New York City, where he studied the Meisner technique. He makes innovative use of this methodology in Up the Yangtze, his first feature-length documentary.

Price

Regular: $25
Student: $10

Access included in Filmmaker Pass

Schedule

2:30 PM – 2:35 PM: Opening Welcome
2:35 PM – 4:10 PM: Industry Screening of China Heavyweight
4:10 PM – 4:45 PM: Talk with FENG Xi & Yung CHANG
4:45 PM – 5:00 PM: Q&A

China Heavyweight

China Heavyweight (2012) is a documentary that focuses on QI Moxiang, a boxing coach and former professional boxer. It documents him recruiting teenagers in southwestern China to for a possible sporting and Olympic career, while preparing to fight professionally again.

It is Yung CHANG’s second feature documentary after his award-winning debut feature documentary Up the Yangtze (2008). China Heavyweight won the Best Documentary, Golden Horse Award in Taiwan and the Best Feature Film at Milan Film Festival in 2012.

Host

Jane Hui WANG

Hui Wang (a.k.a. Jane) is a Toronto-based documentary filmmaker with a passion for observational story-telling. She is also a programmer and a skilled freelance content researcher specializing in China-related documentary projects. Born and raised in Wuhan, Wang moved to Canada in 2001 and is a graduate of York University’s Honours English BA program and Toronto Metropolitan University’s Film Studies certificate program. Her debut feature-length documentary Last Harvest (2015) won the Tokyo TV Forum Award at the CNEX Chinese Documentary Forum in Taiwan, was the closing night film at Toronto’s Planet in Focus International Environmental Film Festival and won both the World Documentary Award and Best Female-Directed Documentary Award at the Whistler Film Festival. Last Harvest has been licensed for broadcast on major networks in Asia and Europe, including Singapore’s CNA and ARTE France. Wang is currently in post-production of her second feature-length documentary The Gardener And The Dictator with support from the Hot Docs CrossCurrents Doc Fund, Canada Council for the Arts, Ontario Arts Council, Toronto Arts Council, and the National Film Board of Canada.

Co-Presenter