Zhang Mengqi — Director | Biography, Movies & Career

Biography

Zhang Mengqi was born in 1987. Lives in Beijing and Diaoyutai Village(Hubei) She graduated from the Dance Academy of Minzu University of China in 2008. Since 2009, she has been a resident filmmaker and choreographer at Caochangdi Workstation in Beijing. In 2010 she participated in The Folk Memory Project.

Since 2010, Mengqi has made nine feature-length documentaries filmed in her father’s village in Hebei Province, known as her ‘self-portrait series’, a decade-long creation between exploring history and illuminating reality, and a film a year, the formation of a unique group of works.Her films have been selected by Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival, Cinéma du Réel, Visions du Réel, RIDM etc.

Her first film ‘Self-Portrait with Three Women’ was selected as ‘Ten Best Documentary Films’ in the 8th China Independent Film Festival. Her latest film “Self-Portrait: Sphinx in 47 KM” Won the “White Goose Award” in DMZ International Documentary Film Festival.

Her choreographic work was performed in Foundation CULTURESCAPES(Switzerland), Rencontres chorégraphiques internationales de Seine-Saint-Denis (France), ImPuls Tanz (Vienna), Eurokaz (Croatia), etc. As a founding member of The Folk Memory Project, Mengqi also participated in the creation of collective theater works, Memory: Hunger (2010), Memory: Monument (2012), Reading Hunger (2016), Reading Father(2019).