Time and Tide: The Films of Jia Zhang-ke

Wednesday, April 30 - Thursday, May 8, 2025

In advance of the May 9 opening of his new film, CAUGHT BY THE TIDES, IFC Center pays tribute to the trailblazing filmmaker Jia Zhang-ke with a comprehensive retrospective spanning nine days and almost three decades of work. 

Jia’s latest film is an epic portrait of a radically transforming China, his subject from the beginning, but also a summation of his entire career. Woven together from footage filmed over a span of 23 years, both fiction and documentary, it features a cascade of images taken from the filmmaker’s previous movies and unused scenes. 

The program offers audiences a rare chance to revisit the earlier films only glimpsed in CAUGHT BY THE TIDES–a remarkable body of work that grows both richer and more poignant with time, anchored by the incandescent performances of Jia’s longtime collaborator Zhao Tao. Highlights include a restoration of his 1997 debut, XIAO WU, along with all his fiction features: PLATFORM (2000), his first film with Zhao, screening in a rare 35mm print; UNKNOWN PLEASURES (2002); STILL LIFE (Best Film, Venice 2006); and A TOUCH OF SIN (Best Screenplay, Cannes 2013), and others, as well as a selection of his documentaries. Also screening is Walter Salles’ 2014 portrait JIA ZHANG-KE, A GUY FROM FENYANG.

Jia will appear in person for Q&As following a screening of XIAO WU on Sunday, May 4, and after sneak previews of CAUGHT BY THE TIDES on Monday, May 5 and Tuesday, May 6.

“A modern master of postmodern discontent… strikingly gifted.”  – Manohla Dargis, New York Times

“The most important filmmaker in the world… among other first-rate filmmakers, he clearly surpasses everyone in the scale of his subject matter, which is nothing less than the biggest economic, social and physical transformation taking place in the world today.” – Stuart Klawans, The Nation

See more and save! Get a Jia Zhang-ke Ticket Pack ($30 for IFC Center members and $45 for non-members). Ticket packs are good for any three shows in the retrospective.

For a flyer with the full schedule, click here.

Series Films

Current and Upcoming Films