- Welcome to POV.
I'm Pete Schwaba, host of
Wisconsin Public Television's Director's Cut.
Tonight, on POV, we give you a sneak peek
at an Oscar-nominated documentary film.
Minding the Gap is a coming of age film
about three skateboarders that was shot over 12 years,
primarily in director Bing Liu's hometown of Rockford, Illinois.
The soft-spoken director was the victim of domestic abuse
at the hands of his stepfather.
And he noticed a pattern of dysfunctional father figures
in the lives of many other skateboarders.
Liu and his friends, Keire and Zack, were all runaways
with turbulent home lives who forged a bond
and in effect formed their own family.
It inspired Liu to explore the complexities
of modern-day masculinity and the gap between fathers and sons
and the difference between discipline and abuse.
In addition to an Oscar nomination,
the film has already garnered a slew of awards
thanks to an amazingly successful festival run,
including the Jury Award for breakthrough filmmaking
at the Sundance Film Festival.
Variety magazine said of Liu,
"He's a virtual camera on wheels."
And says that Minding the Gap
was the film Liu was born to make.
It starts now on Wisconsin Public Television,
your home for independent film.