Oscar Week: Podtalk with Director Bing Liu of Oscar nominated Feature Doc ‘Minding the Gap’

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CHICAGO – All through the 2019 Oscar Week, HollywoodChicago.com will rerun significant articles from 2018 that feature the nominees associated with Sunday’s Academy Award ceremony. Today is a Podtalk with director Bing Liu, who was the filmmaker behind a Best Documentary Feature nominee, “Minding the Gap.” The film seems to be a nostalgic profile of Liu’s youth in Rockford, Illinois, as he goes back to his hometown to explore the skateboarding culture that kept him balanced while growing up in a difficult home environment. What he found out about himself was an organic reveal in the film, both shocking and cathartic.

The film, available on the online Hulu Network, will also have a free TV broadcast on Monday, February 18th, 2019, on Chicago’s PBS Station WTTW (9pm CST, and then throughout the week, click here for details). Besides Liu featuring himself in the documentary, he also profiles fellow Rockford skateboarders Zack Mulligan and Keire Johnson, and finds commonality in their family lives. It is an extraordinary filmmaker statement, and has climbed to the pinnacle with an Oscar nomination.

MTG
Home in Rockford: Bing Liu (center) with ‘Minding the Gap’ Skaters Keire Johnson (left) and Zack Mulligan
Photo credit: Hulu

Bing Liu has deep experience as a cinematographer and on-set production roles throughout his ten year career. He concurrently is featured as a director on the multi-part documentary “America to Me” (on the Starz Network), produced by filmmaker Steve James of “Hoop Dreams” fame, and has spent the last six months making the festival rounds on behalf of “Minding the Gap” and Kartemquin Films, the Chicago company that produced the documentary.

In PART ONE of the Podtalk with Bing Liu of “Minding the Gap,” with Patrick McDonald of HollywoodChicago.com, the filmmaker observes his process in developing the documentary, and his collaboration with Gordon Quinn of Kartemquin Films.


In PART TWO of the Podtalk, Liu goes deeper into the meaning and memories of “Minding the Gap.”


“Minding the Gap,” besides its presentation on WTTW-TV, is available nationwide on the online Hulu Network, for download information click here. Directed by Bing Liu. Not Rated.

HollywoodChicago.com senior staff writer Patrick McDonald

By PATRICK McDONALD
Editor and Film Writer
HollywoodChicago.com
pat@hollywoodchicago.com

© 2018 Patrick McDonald, HollywoodChicago.com

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