Join us for the fourth installment of Films at the Whitney’s Fall 2024 screening series, World Documentaries Today!

Shot at the historic Théâtre des Bouffes du Nord in Paris, Wang Bing’s first work made outside of China stages a biographical encounter with 86-year-old modern classical composer Wang Xilin. Standing naked against the empty theater’s distressed architecture, the artist proceeds to sing, play piano, contort his scarred body into odd shapes, and eventually recount the torture and intense persecution he faced during the Cultural Revolution, all while excerpts from his compositions erupt in irregular measures on the soundtrack. This film ushers in a new phase in the director’s career by adopting a newly liberated style in which the fluidity of the camera and montage acts as a fitting frame for the vivid expression of historical trauma.

Directed by Wang Bing. Country: France, U.S., U.K. 61 min. Mandarin with English subtitles.