Andy speaks with Bing Liu, director of the 2018, Oscar nominated documentary Minding the Gap.    They discuss how boys become men and the masculine script in America through the lens of Bing’s childhood growing up in suburban Illinois, without a loving father figure.

Bing Liu is a documentary filmmaker and cinematographer based in Chicago. His first feature documentary, Minding the Gap, is streaming on Hulu and was nominated for best documentary at the 2019 Academy Awards. 

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With his Oscar-nominated documentary “Minding the Gap,” director Bing Liu proved himself a talent at deftly unpacking emotionally complex topics (in that case, three young skateboarders navigating the trauma left by domestic abuse). For his next project, the 30-year-old is tackling Millennial love. So when Clay asked him how we got to the point where we’re all ghosting each other, Liu had plenty of thoughts. In particular, how we can end ghosting, why he believes most relationships fail, and the secret to being more honest with your partner.

Follow: Bing Liu, @BingLiu89; Clay Skipper, @SkipperClay

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We've got big name guests this week: Fiona talks to controversial director Lars Von Trier about his penchant for putting his foot in his mouth, and what, if anything, he's learned from getting kicked out of the Cannes Film Festival all those years ago. Nick talks to director Bing Liu about his landmark Oscar-nominated documentary, Minding The Gap, which chronicles a friendship between three skaters in the U.S. - and whether there's any hard feelings about losing out to Free Solo. 

Questionable details emerge about Jussie Smollett's alleged attack, President Trump declares a national emergency, and "Minding the Gap" director Bing Liu stops by.

This week on TIFF Long Take, Rob sits down with documentarian Bing Liu. Liu’s debut feature film, Minding the Gap, tells the story of three young men (including Liu) in Rockford Illinois, who use skateboarding as a way to cope with their traumatic home lives. The film, which topped several best of 2018 lists, will be playing as part of TIFF Next Wave.

Liu discusses how he used skateboarding as a gateway to making his own films, the different iterations of Minding the Gap, and why he decided to insert his own backstory into the film’s narrative.

He also talks about how a documentarian knows when their film is done, how he ethically approached making a film about domestic abuse, and his relationship with legendary documentarian Steve James.

Rob Harvilla calls in to make sense of the release of two Fyre Festival documentaries in the same week by Netflix and Hulu. Then, ‘Minding the Gap’ director Bing Liu talks about navigating the complicated and personal themes in his documentary.

Host: Sean Fennessey

Guests: Bing Liu, Rob Harvilla

Documentary filmmaker Bing Liu joins host Eric Newman to discuss his award winning and critically acclaimed documentary Minding the Gap. A portrait of Bing's friends from his skate community in his hometown of Rockford Illinois, Minding the Gap is a hard film to pin down. In his conversation with Eric, Bing reflects upon the allure of skate culture for struggling teens, the cycles of domestic violence and abuse that move across generations from parents to children, and the emotional and cultural density of life in Middle America. Also, Michael Arceneaux, author of the collection I Can't Date Jesus, returns to recommend Darnell Moore's No Ashes in the Fire: Coming of Age Black and Free in America, a tale of a young, queer, black activist that's full of social observations, trenchant critique, and beautiful prose.