Lina Yang is a leading figure in Chinese independent documentary. She started making independent documentary filmmaker in 1997 and was among the first to have adopted digital video to document the rapidly changing urban landscape and social fabric of Beijing around the turn of the 21st century. Old Men (1999) is her first documentary and the first DV documentary in China. It won the New Asian Currents Excellence Award at the 1999 Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival, the 2000 SCAM prize at the Cinéma du Réel international documentary film festival in Paris, and the Golden Dove of Peace Prize at Leipzig Documentary Film Festival. Her other award-winning documentaries include Home Video (2000 Leipzig), Let’s Dance Together (2007), My Neighbours and Their Japanese Ghosts (2008 HKIFF), The Love Story of Lao An (2008 HKIFF), and Wild Grass (2009).
Also documentarist-turned feature filmmaker. Lina Yang has completed a trilogy of fiction films, Longing for the Rain (2013), Spring Tide (2019), and Song of Spring (2022). Longing for the Rain, a challenging exploration of female sexuality in modern Chinese society, was nominated for prizes at the 2013 International Film Festival Rotterdam, the Taipei Golden Horse Awards, and won a Special Mention at the Hong Kong International Film Festival. Her second feature, Spring Tide was also nominated in many festivals and won Best Cinematography at the 2019 Shanghai International Film Festival. Lina is a jury of several international film festivals and was also part of our 2022 Fountainhead Programme Final Selection Committee.
Lina’s films focus on individuals, life track and identity in changing times. Her works cut across multiple themes, such as Women of China, History and Present, forgetting and forgiving, aging and rebirth. From her independent documentaries, to her female trilogy, and to her last documentary Leap of Faith, Yang sought to present characters, fictional and real, rooted in a complex and contradictory context. This is unique, as it portrays China rapid transformations and urbanisation. But it is also familiar to us and has universal traits, building a safe space to explore inner conflicts and human emotions. As a female director, she has a strong female gaze and tells stories of women’s multiple identities, showing women’s plight, pain, struggle, bravery and tenderness. Her creations show critical thinking, using images to bring problems to the audience to relate with and reflect on. From her first work, “Old Men”, to her latest ‘’Leap of Faith’’, Lina has carried unique and individual film journeys ” and made beautiful, inquisitive and personal films.