Films at the Whitney: Work/Place

2024 | Directed by Jia Zhangke | China, France, and Japan | 111 minutes | Mandarin and English with English subtitles

Free admission. No registration required. 

CAUGHT BY THE TIDES, the latest film from award-winning director Jia Zhangke, maps the transformation of work and life in China over the past twenty years through the enduring but fragile love story of Qiaoqiao and Bin. The film follows Qiaoqiao—played by Zhao Tao, Jia’s longtime romantic and creative partner—from the northern coal-mining city of Datong to the Three Gorges Dam and back. Weaving in footage from Jia’s past films, including UNKNOWN PLEASURES and ASH IS PUREST WHITE, CAUGHT BY THE TIDES becomes an epic of historical change—as sweeping and magisterial as it is tender and intimate—drifting with the tide from postindustrial malaise into the high-technological present.

Work/Place traces the cinematic relationship between labor and its environments, from salt mines and city streets to harbors and factories. With features and shorts from thirteen countries, including France, China, Mali, the United States, and Mexico, this five-night series depicts what the place of work has been—and could be—in the lives of people around the globe.  

Series curated by Annie Berman and Nathaniel LaCelle-Peterson