For nearly two decades, Xin Liu has been returning to the same places. Not because he planned to, but because they kept calling him back.
Sometimes it was the silence after snowfall. Sometimes an iceberg drifting a little farther with the tide, or the brief appearance of a wild animal before it disappeared into the landscape again. At the time, these felt like separate experiences. Only years later did he begin to realize that they were quietly shaping not only the films he was making, but also the way he was learning to pay attention.
Gradually, he came to understand that these places were not simply locations where films happened to be made. They had always been quietly participating in the becoming of each film.
Born in Harbin, Liu has lived and worked in France and Canada, moving across different cultures and landscapes. His journeys have taken him from the Rocky Mountains to the coast of Newfoundland, from the French Alps to the Tibetan Plateau, and to collaborations in Senegal, Lebanon, Peru, Germany, and elsewhere. Yet the memories that remain with him are rarely dramatic. More often, they are moments of waiting—standing quietly until an animal no longer notices the camera, returning to the same coastline to watch an iceberg change with the weather, or discovering that a familiar landscape never looks the same twice.
Over time, these experiences changed the way he makes films. He no longer goes out looking for extraordinary moments. More often, he waits for ordinary ones to reveal themselves.
Some things can only be filmed by waiting.
His films move at the pace of the places that give rise to them. They leave room for silence, weather, light, and time to become part of the experience. Rather than asking viewers to follow a story, Liu hopes they can spend time with a place, allowing their own memories, emotions, and ways of seeing to become part of what unfolds on screen.
Living between different languages and cultures has shaped the way Liu understands images. He has come to believe that every act of looking carries memory, experience, and culture within it. Perhaps filmmaking is not about showing the world as it is, but about creating a space where different ways of seeing can quietly meet.
His current feature-length project, An Ode to Snow, continues this long return to place through the movement of snow, ice, water, and wildlife across different landscapes. Like his earlier works, it grows from the same quiet curiosity: what becomes visible when we learn to slow down?
Liu's films have screened in more than thirteen countries at over twenty-five international film festivals, including Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival, Edmonton International Film Festival, Innsbruck Nature Film Festival, Planet in Focus, Nepal International Film Festival, and the China Documentary Academy Awards. His work has been supported by the Canada Council for the Arts, Universal Studios Canada, the York Centre for Asian Research, and the Ontario Graduate Scholarship.
Liu holds an MFA in Film Production from York University (Canada), an MSc in Nature Documentary Writing and Directing from the Université de Poitiers (France), and a BA in Television Production from Heilongjiang University (China).
近二十年来，刘心一直不断地回到那些地方。并非出于计划，而是因为它们始终在召唤着他。
有时，是一场大雪后的寂静；有时，是一座冰山随着潮汐缓缓漂向更远的海面；有时，则是一只野生动物短暂出现，又重新隐没于风景之中。当时，这些都只是彼此独立的经历。直到很多年以后，他才渐渐意识到，它们不仅塑造着自己拍摄的电影，也悄然改变着自己感知世界的方式。
他逐渐明白，那些地方并不仅仅是电影发生的地点。它们始终默默参与着每一部电影的生成。
出生于哈尔滨，随后生活于法国与加拿大，刘心长期在不同文化与自然环境之间工作。他的足迹遍及加拿大落基山脉、纽芬兰海岸、法国阿尔卑斯山、青藏高原，也曾在塞内加尔、黎巴嫩、秘鲁、德国等地参与创作。然而，真正留在记忆中的，很少是那些戏剧性的瞬间。更多时候，是漫长的等待——静静站立，直到野生动物不再察觉摄影机的存在；一次次回到同一片海岸，等待冰山随着天气不断改变；又或是在熟悉的风景里，一次次发现它从未真正重复过自己。
这些经历也逐渐改变了他拍电影的方式。他不再刻意寻找那些所谓非凡的瞬间，而更愿意等待那些平凡的时刻，让它们自己慢慢显现。
有些影像，只能靠等待完成。
他的电影遵循着那些孕育它们的地方自身的节奏。它们为寂静、天气、光线与时间留下空间，让这些原本容易被忽略的存在，也成为观看经验的一部分。相比讲述一个完整的故事，他更希望观众能够与一个地方共同停留，让自己的记忆、情感以及观看世界的方式，自然而然地进入电影之中。
长期生活于不同语言与文化之间，也不断塑造着他理解影像的方式。他渐渐相信，每一次观看都承载着记忆、经验与文化。电影或许并不是为了呈现世界本来的样子，而是在不同的观看方式之间，创造一个能够彼此相遇的空间。
目前，他正在创作长片纪录电影《雪之颂》（An Ode to Snow）。影片沿着雪、冰、水与野生动物在不同地域之间的流动，再次展开对“地方”的长期回返。正如他此前的作品一样，它依然源于同一个安静而持久的好奇：当我们真正慢下来时，究竟会有什么开始显现？
他的作品已在十三个国家、二十五个国际电影节展映，包括Hot Docs 国际纪录片电影节、埃德蒙顿国际电影节、因斯布鲁克自然电影节、 Planet in Focus 国际环境电影节、尼泊尔国际电影节，以及中国纪录片学院奖等。其创作曾获得加拿大艺术委员会、环球影业加拿大、约克大学亚洲研究中心以及安大略省研究生奖学金等机构的支持。
刘心拥有加拿大约克大学电影制作，艺术硕士（MFA）、法国普瓦捷大学自然纪录片创作与写作，社会学硕士（MSc），以及中国黑龙江大学电视编导，学士学位。