Before He Starts (2018), a concise documentary profiling of artist Zhang Hongtu, reveals his initial impulse in making art after a bittersweet, decades-long journey. Looking at his past but more im-portantly his present, the film features how Hongtu coped with painful memories, and how he chose to stay true to himself in a world where fame values more than anything else. Equally arresting is his personal story as a Chinese American, an experience I'm sharing with him living between the United States and China as a resident alien. What is our position in the world, and how can we contribute more as a human being? The film follows Hongtu from New York to Kansas, using the Kansas landscape and bison as his new subjects to challenge stereotypical identity politics, and to approach the East/West connection from his perspective. The eyes of the world are opening, and I believe history is giving us this moment to choose a better path. We can only progress when we hear voices outside the mainstream.
◾About the Director◾
Fang Xin (b. 1993) is a Chinese artist and documentary filmmaker. Her practice maps the various ways the personal and race overlap. By charting her own experiences and the community, which are intertwined with historical sociopolitical contexts, she questions individuality and the power of author-ity. Born and raised in Shenzhen, China, Fang came to the United States to continue her bachelor degree in visual journalism and sociology at Boston University (2016). She graduated with the Paula Rhodes Memorial Award from the School of Visual Arts in documentary filmmaking (2019). What does it cost to create, and what kind of world will we create now that we are starting to see the cost of our actions? What can we learn from history, and what should we do to continue moving for-ward? These are the questions that led her to produce her thesis film, Before He Starts (2018).
