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Songs my Brothers Taught Me (2015)
Zhao first came to the Walker Cinema stage in 2016 with her debut feature, Songs My Brothers Taught Me, which premiered at Sundance and was selected for the Director’s Fortnight at Cannes while Zhao was still a grad student at NYU’s Tisch School for the Arts. Zhao’s breakthrough film, made on the Pine Ridge reservation, is a nuanced narrative about the bond between a young Lakota Sioux brother and sister (Jashaun St. John and John Reddy) on different paths. Zhao collaborated closely with the local cast and community over four years to create the film, which was developed at the Sundance Institute. View now via Kino Lorber. View trailer.
The Rider (2017)
While filming in South Dakota, Zhao met Brady Jandreau, a rising Lakota Sioux rodeo star who experienced a life-changing traumatic brain injury. Her second feature, The Rider, again stays close to the truth with Jandreau and members of his family participating as actors and co-creators of the personal film about his life after the career-ending fall. A re-imagining of the Western genre, The Rider premiered at the Cannes Film Festival’s Director’s Fortnight and won the Art Cinema award in 2017. Zhao was nominated for multiple Film Independent Spirit Awards that year and she became the inaugural recipient of the Bonnie Award, recognizing the innovative vision and breakthrough work of female directors. The film also won Best Feature at the Gotham Awards. View now via Sony Classics. View trailer.
Nomadland (2020)
The director’s first studio production, Nomadland was widely and consistently acclaimed throughout 2020 by film festivals and critics. Zhao directs award-winning actor Frances McDormand in a drama based on Jessica Bruder’s nonfiction book Nomadland: Surviving America in the 21st Century. McDormand plays van-dweller Fern, a displaced woman on a solitary quest for happiness following the loss of a life she once lived. True to form, the film is an immersive road trip, enriching Fern’s story with the narratives of transient non-actors she meets along the way. Firmly and fearlessly rooted in the presence of the characters and the beautifully lensed Western landscapes, Zhao’s fictional interpretation is a lingering, graceful, and often surprising portrait of a distressed America adrift.
Nomadland won Best Film at the Venice Film Festival and the People’s Choice Award for Best Film at the Toronto Film Festival. It also won Best Film, Best Director, Best Actress, and Best Cinematography from the National Society of Film Critics as well as Best Feature and the 2020 Audience Award for Best Feature at the Gotham Awards. Additionally, Zhao was named Best Director by the New York Film Critics and Los Angeles Film Critics, among others.
Nomadland was released theatrically by Searchlight Pictures in early 2021. View now via Searchlight Pictures or on Hulu. View trailer.
Eternals (2021) – release date November 5, 2021
Perhaps unexpectedly to the film world but not to Zhao (a fan of manga since childhood), the filmmaker approached Marvel to write and direct Eternals, the highly anticipated action saga about immortal, ancient aliens living on earth. Later in 2021, an even wider audience will experience Zhao’s unique outsider vision and her strength creating intimate situations, this time with fantastical, universal scope and scale. This film will be released on November 5, 2021. Find out more. View trailer.
About Chloé Zhao
“Suddenly, Chloé Zhao is Hollywood’s Favorite Director”
Chloé Zhao was born in Beijing, China. She was raised there and also in Brighton, England. After moving to the US, she studied Politics at Mt Holyoke College and Film Production at NYU. As a writer, director and producer, her first feature Songs My Brothers Taught Me premiered at Sundance Film Festival in 2015 and her second feature The Rider premiered at Cannes Film Festival’s Directors’ Fortnight in 2017 and won the Art Cinema Award. Her two upcoming features are Nomadland, a road movie set in the American West, and Marvel Studios’ Eternals.
About the Walker Art Center
Known for presenting today’s most compelling artists from close to home and around the world, the Walker Art Center features a broad array of contemporary visual arts, music, dance, theater, and moving image works. Ranging from concerts and films to exhibitions and workshops, Walker programs bring us together to examine the questions that shape and inspire us as individuals, cultures, and communities. The adjacent Minneapolis Sculpture Garden, one of the first urban sculpture parks of its kind in the United States, holds at its center the beloved Twin Cities landmark Spoonbridge and Cherry by Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen as well as some 60 sculptures on the 19-acre Walker campus. Visit [walkerart.org]walkerart.org for more information on upcoming events and programs.
About the Walker Dialogues
The Dialogue and Retrospective series (1990–2020) was begun by Walker film and video curator Bruce Jenkins (1985–1999), who envisioned it as a forum for the critical exploration of the medium and a way to highlight the vast diversity of contemporary filmmakers, from experimental and documentary to international. The program continued through 2020 under the leadership and vision of senior curator Sheryl Mousley, whose contributions reflected her interest in the world-wide independent film movement. Learn more at walkerart.org. |
