[ Synopsis ]
[ Video ]
{{ About the filmmakers }}
[ News ]
[ Press ]
[ Shop ]
[ Donate ]
[ Contact/Mailing List ]

threewaters [at] gmail.com

home

ABOUT THE FILMMAKERS

BEIJING TAXI
A film by Miao Wang
Produced by Ivana Stolkiner and Miao Wang
Directors of Photography: Sean Price Williams and Ian Vollmer
Additional Camera by Wang Shiqing
Edited by Sikay Tang and Co-edited by Miao Wang

Score by Stephen Ulrich and Itamar Ziegler

Miao Wang (Director/Producer/Co-editor)

Born in Beijing, China just after the Cultural Revolution, Miao Wang grew up with the last remnants of a pre-modernized Communist China. She immigrated to the US in 1990.

After earning a B.A. in economics from the University of Chicago, Miao moved to New York City, where she began to explore her passions in photography, design, and film. Her multidisciplinary pursuits have led her to organize large-scale art happenings; publish an art book, “Overkill,” with Booth-Clibborn Editions (London), and work on award- winning designs with acclaimed graphic designer and art director Stefan Sagmeister. She earned a M.F.A. in design and film from the Parsons School of Design in 2005, where she began working on her first documentary film, Yellow Ox Mountain. This half-hour documentary, which she directed, produced, and edited, has screened at over 20 film festivals and venues worldwide, received a Best Short Film Award, was broadcast on Thirteen New York/WNET, and is distributed by Filmaker’s Library.

She has worked as an assistant at Maysles Films, the studio of the legendary direct-cinema documentary filmmaker Albert Maysles. As an editor, Miao has edited for programs for National Geographic TV, video projects for architect Steven Holl, a feature-length documentary shot by Albert Maysles, and a video art piece for artist and musician Malcolm McLaren.

In documentary filmmaking Miao has found the outlet to not only fully engage every aspect of her multifaceted interests and talents, but also a platform for her to observe and explore what truly touches her heart—the human condition.

Beijing Taxi is Miao’s first feature length documentary. She returns to Beijing for the first time as an adult for extended periods of time. The project is on a personal level a quest to revisit the mostly vanished city of her childhood memories, and to explore the new Beijing racing towards modernization. She captures Beijing with the unique point of view of an emigrant Beijinger carrying the perspectives of both a native and an outsider.

Miao has received a grant from the Sundance Documentary Fund, the Jerome Foundation, and NYSCA, for BEIJING TAXI. Currently Miao divides her time between New York and Beijing.

Ivana Stolkiner (Producer)

Born in Argentina, Ivana moved to NY in 1998. After graduating with honors from the film program at Hunter College in 2004, she assisted the producers of Kartemquin Films in several award-winning and ITVS funded documentaries (MAPPING STEM CELL RESEARCH: TERRA INCOGNITA, MILKING THE RHINO and IN THE FAMILY, among others). Ivana assisted the producers of Engel Entertainment in films for Discovery Channel and National Geographic, and subsequently worked as a producer at Pacific Street Films in socially and culturally relevant documentary such as IN DEBT WE TRUST and BEYOND WISE GUYS. Ivana lives in Brooklyn and freelances in the documentary and commercial industries.

Sean Price Williams (Director of Photography)

Since age 17, Sean Williams has worked at great video stores including Kim’s Video in New York, and breathed cinema and music every day of his life. Films make him remember life. Listening to music makes him feel like he’s busy doing something. His breathtaking cinematography is showcased in Jessica Oreck’s BEETLE QUEEN CONQUERS TOKYO, which premiered at SXSW 2009. Variety’s Justin Chang calls Sean’s cinematography "pure poetry." The film went on to win a Special Documentary Jury Prize for Artistic Vision at Cinevegas 2009. Sean was the cinematographer on Ronald Bronstein’s FROWNLAND, which received a Special Jury Award at SXSW 2007, and was named 2007 Gotham Awards’ "Best Film Not Playing at a Theatre Near You." Sean works as an archivist at Maysles Films, and shoots alongside Albert Maysles as additional camera operator.

Ian Vollmer (Director of Photography)

Drawn to the cinema by the works of Raymond Chandler and Film Noir, Ian Vollmer studied under filmmaker Bruce Baillie and apprenticed with Yamashita Nobuko in Osaka, Japan. Ian's first feature length film as cinematographer, Alan Berliner's WIDE AWAKE, premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2006, where it was nominated for a Grand Jury Prize, screened at festivals worldwide, and premiered on HBO in May 2007. He continues to collaborate with Alan Berliner on his current project. Ian collaborated with Miao Wang as cinematographer on her first film YELLOW OX MOUNTAIN.

Sikay Tang (Editor)

Sikay Tang received her film training with Spike Lee’s production of JUNGLE FEVER (1991) and MALCOM X (1992). A year later, during the making of her first video, Sikay began her interest in film editing. Her editing credits include feature documentary films CHISHOLM 72- UNBOUGHT AND UNBOSSED (2004) directed by Shola Lunch and THE GOOD SOLDIER (2009) directed by Michael Uys and and Lexy Lovell. Sikay studied photography and sculpture at the University of Chicago and fine arts at the jan van Eyck Akademie in Holland. Sikay works as a film and video editor and lives in New York City.

 











Three Waters Productions