Directed by: Alison Klayman.
China has come a long way in becoming a
more open society in the past few decades, yet still has a long way to go until
they are truly open, truly free. Artist and activist Ai Weiwei almost perfectly
embodies this contradiction in Chinese society. Decades ago, someone as openly
critical of the Chinese government would be, like his father was, shipped off
for “reeducation through hard labor” – and that is if they were lucky and
weren’t executed or just “disappeared”. And yet, while this hasn’t happened to
Ai Weiwei yet, the Chinese government did shut down his blog when he used it to
openly and repeatedly criticize them in the wake of the earthquake that left
tens of thousands dead – including thousands of school children crushed in
poorly constructed government schools. One police officer even punched Ai in
the head, causing him to need brain surgery. And then there was that three
month period where Ai vanished – taken in by the police and questioned,
apparently because of his finances, and then released – with a $2.4 million tax
bill given to him. So yes, things have gotten better – but they are far from
good.
Alison Klayman’s documentary Ai Weiwei:
Never Sorry is a fascinating portrait of the man who has become arguably
China’s most famous modern artist. It tracks his development – from his nine
year period in New York for the mid-1980s to the early 1990s, to his return to
Beijing, where he became a fixture on the “underground” art scene – because the
galleries did not want to show his type of art. Back then, he was doing things
like photographing himself smashed a Han Dynasty vase, or painting over similar
relics – sometimes with logos for things like Coca Cola. These were seen as
shocking at the time – how could he “destroy” these pieces of Chinese history,
but the symbolism is clear – China is destroying their own history everyday –
and no one notices.
His career really took off in the early
2000s, and his reputation has simply grown, both internationally and inside
China ever since. He now works on an enormous scale – making a collage of
backpacks spelling out a simple phrase “She lived happily on this earth for
seven years”, a quote from a parent of one those children killed in the
earthquake. Ai was tireless in his effort to uncover how many children were
killed – sending out volunteers across the country to collect the names and
birthdates of the children killed, because apparently the Chinese government
thought this information should be “classified”. When they shut down his blog,
he takes to twitter – getting information out to his mainly followers as it
happens. When the police follow and videotape him, he has his own videographer’s
film them right back. Although he knows nothing will come out of his request
for an investigation into the punch that police officer gave him, he goes
around to every government agency he can to file a complaint. Why? Because for
Ai, saying the system is flawed is useless – you have to show it is flawed. How
else will it ever get better?
This documentary is mainly a
celebration of Ai Weiwei and his work – essentially letting him tell his own
story, either through interviews (with Klayman, or others that she observes),
or through simply sitting back and watching, fly on the wall style, as Ai works.
His life and his work have become so intertwined, it is almost impossible to
tell the difference anymore – everything he does is part of his art. This is a
beautiful, thoughtful, fascinating documentary about an important artist – and
is one of the year’s best documentaries.
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