J.P. Sniadecki (Northwestern University) works between the US and China as a filmmaker and anthropologist. From Chengdu demolition sites to New York City junkyards to the Sonoran Desert borderlands, he employs cinema and sensory ethnography to explore collective experience, the aesthetics of place, and the possibilities of film form. His films are in the permanent collection of New York’s Museum of Modern Art and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and have been exhibited there and at the Whitney Biennale, the Shanghai Biennale, the Shenzhen Biennale, and the Guggenheim, as well as at international film festivals such as Berlin, BFI London, Locarno, New York, AFI, San Francisco, Rotterdam, Viennale, IDFA, Mar del Plata, Taiwan International Documentary Festival, and more. His films, which receive praise from publications such as The New York Times, The Guardian, ArtForum, and Filmmaker Magazine, include Chaiqian/Demolition (2010), winner of the Joris Ivens Award at Cinema du Reel; Foreign Parts (2010), winner of two Leopards at Locarno and named Best Film at the Punto de Vista Film Festival and DocsBarcelona; People’s Park (2012), winner of Best Anthropological Film at Festival dei Popoli; Yumen (2013), named Best Experimental Film and Best Chinese Film at the Taiwan International Documentary Film Festival; and The Iron Ministry (2014), which garnered the top prize at L'Alternativa Film Festival and jury prizes at the Ann Arbor Film Festival, Valdivia, and Camden.  His latest feature, El Mar La Mar (2017) won the Caligari Award during its premiere at the Berlin International Film Festival, and earned “Best Film” awards at Olhar du Cinema, Dokufest Kosovo, and Lima Independent Film Festival, along with a University Award at Indie Lisboa.  He cofounded the traveling screening series “Cinema on the Edge,” which showcases independent Chinese film, and has written articles for Cinema Scope, Visual Anthropology Review, and the edited volume DV-Made China. A 2017 Guggenheim Fellowship recipient, J.P. earned a PhD at Harvard and currently teaches film at Northwestern University.