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WexCast: Bing Liu on Minding the Gap

Dec 17, 2018

Bing Liu, director of the documentary film Minding the Gap, sits on the stage in the Wexner Center for the Arts Film/Video Theater following a screening in Unorthodocs 2018

Welcome to the first installment of Wex Moments 2018. Over the next two weeks, we'll share words, pictures, and audio to revisit just a few of our favorite events and guests from the past calendar year. 

On the last weekend of October, the Wex presented the second annual Unorthodocs., a yearly celebration of the possibilities of nonfiction filmmaking. Among the many guests that weekend were Bing Liu, director of Minding the Gap, a thoughtful, touching, and beautifully shot documentary that focuses on Bing and other skaters in his hometown of Rockford, Illinois as they grow up and face a variety of challenges in their futures, and their pasts.

In the time since we presented the film's Columbus theatrical premiere, Minding the Gap has been widely hailed as one of the best documentaries of the year, picking up a number of critics awards and a Gotham Award nomination for best documentary. This week, it was announced that the film has made the short list for consideration for an Oscar for Best Documentary Feature, alongside another great Unorthodocs. selection, RaMell Ross's Hale County, This Morning, This Evening.

With Minding the Gap getting so much attention and with the film's availability to stream on Hulu, we’ve decided to share the Q&A that took place that weekend between Liu and Wex Associate Film/Video Curator Chris Stults, in which Liu discusses the creation of the film and his decision to become one of its subjects. Wherever you see the film, this is a highly recommended supplement to your viewing experience, and an insightful peek behind the scenes of how documentaries are constructed.