Welcome to the Asian A.V. Club interview podcast series HANG! This week, we sit down with Chinese American director and cinematographer Bing Liu. Born in Beijing and raised in Rockford, Illinois, Liu turned to skateboarding and video-making as an escape from a turbulent home life. That early passion grew into a career behind the camera, eventually leading him to craft his acclaimed documentary Minding the Gap, which stitched together years of footage of himself and his friends literally coming of age. The raw emotional film earned Liu the U.S. Documentary Special Jury Award at Sundance, a 2018 Peabody, a New York Film Critics Circle award, and an Academy Award nomination, cementing him as one of the most distinctive nonfiction storytellers of his generation.

Bing makes his narrative feature debut with Preparation for the Next Life, adapted from Atticus Lish’s award-winning novel. The film centers on Aishe, an undocumented Uyghur migrant struggling to survive while working in New York’s kitchens. Played with delicate sensitivity by Sebiye Behtiyar, Aishe falls in love with a troubled American soldier, portrayed by Fred Hechinger (Thelma, Gladiator 2), and what emerges is a raw, unsentimental love story, filtered through Liu’s deeply personal lens.

So press play as we catch up with the director at home to talk about his unique upbringing, his path to directing, and the way he and cinematographer Ante Cheng brought a very specific vision of Queens’ Flushing neighborhood to the screen. And remember to subscribe to the podcast from whatever awesome platform you're listening to us on!