Early reviews seem positive, with it receiving a standing ovation at its premiere. The documentary will be well worth a watch and hopefully it just uses Ai Weiwei as a central figure to explore what is going on in China rather than making him out to be a martyr for a cause that isn't explored in great depth. There is no question he's done a lot and risked a lot in the process of his political activism. ![]() With all that said it's very easy to be politically purist and criticise those who put a lot on the line to try and improve the society they live in. I also get the impression that his presence puts a bit of a shadow over the many other political activists who have suffered a lot more than him for their dissenting voices (I'm not saying that he intends to do that by the way). He also seems to be quite aware of himself being a well known figure and it seems there is a bit of an ego with it. But I see the flaws of previously living in a society that Ai Weiwei would aim for and it isn't all it's cracked up to be. Of course I'm not against these reforms, in fact I would gladly welcome them as an improvement for all the people who live in China. He essentially just wants to reform the Chinese government by having more freedom of speech, right to protest and open elections. In the teaser trailer he says that he espouses liberalism and individualism. I can't say I'm a fan of Ai Weiwei politically other than he has put himself out there to challenge the Chinese government. Ive not had a chance to see the film yet but as soon as it. Ive also added my own thoughts on Ai Weiwei. I think you probably get a good idea of what it will be like from the the teaser trailer released last year, a mini-documentary on the New York Times website and the introduction given by the director Alison Klayman for Sundance Film Festival (below). Heres a video (and links to a couple of other videos) previewing the new documentary about the Chinese artist and political activist, Ai Weiwei, which is premiering at the Sundance Film Festival. He is heroic.I've not had a chance to see the film yet but as soon as it starts circulating on the net, I'll do my best to get hold of it. ![]() Ai Weiwei himself is a rather mysterious, opaque figure, but utterly confident and unafraid of state bullies. Part artwork, part memorial, part journalistic campaign, it was conceived in defiant riposte to the authorities who refused to release clear figures. ![]() This was simply a moving and monumental list of people killed in 2008 by the collapse of shoddy and unsafe government buildings the list is an ongoing, continuously updated work in progress. But his art was making a lot happen: it was brilliantly insisting on creativity and freedom, and made compelling political statements – perhaps chiefly his Citizen's Investigation into the Sichuan earthquake. The authorities perhaps believed – to paraphrase Auden's line about poetry – that conceptual art makes nothing happen. Alison Klayman Adam Schlesinger Ilan Isakov Weiwei Ai Danqing Chen Ying Gao Sundance Selects (Firm) United Expression Media (Firm) MUSE Film and Television. For years, until the Chinese government chillingly decided on the demolition of his Shanghai studio and an 81-day detention without trial in 2011, ostensibly on tax charges, Ai Weiwei had seemed almost immune to state harassment, due to his chutzpah, his international fame and the very fact he was an artist. Get this from a library Ai Weiwei : never sorry. The ghosts of Tiananmen Square 1989, and maybe Grosvenor Square 1968, are revived in this engrossing documentary by Alison Klayman about Chinese artist and democracy campaigner Ai Weiwei, who became widely known in the UK with the spectacular Sunflower Seeds installation at Tate Modern in 2010.
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