Born: 1942, Yan'an.- Graduated from Beijing Film Academy in the mid-1960s as part of the Fourth Generation, but like his peers did not get the freedom to make the films he wanted due to the Cultural Revolution. Instead, greater artistic openings only came for him in the 1980s and 90s, contemporaneous to the horizon-expanding of the 5th Generation's cinema.
- His 'real' (non-propaganda) debut came in 1983 with the film Our Fields, when Xie was already in his fourties.
- His two most famous and internationally acclaimed films are Black Snow (1990), and Woman from the Lake of Scented Souls (1993), recipients of the Silver and Golden Bear respectively at Berlinale.
- Currently teaches at the Beijing Film Academy, where he has taught since its post-CR re-opening, and hence he taught members of the Fifth Generation (remember in his talk, he spoke of their obsessive film-watching in all-nighter session with only Chinese buns to keep them going). He himself claims that in his peak years he taught for 2 years out of 3, and shot a film in the other year, with the twin practices of teaching and filming both reinforcing each other.
- Has made a number of films set in, shot in and specifically about Chinese ethnic minority regions and peoples (Mongolia and Tibet), much like Tian Zhuangzhuang or some of the NIC films, such as Gabbeh.
- ...
- Our Fields (1983)
- A Girl from Hunan (1986)
- Black Snow (1990)
- Woman from the Lake of Scented Souls (1993)
- A Mongolian Tale (1995)
- Song of Tibet (2000)
References:
Live talk with Xie at BFI, August 2014
Interview + booklet on Black Snow DVD, Second Run
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