Film Screening: Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry (August)

Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry
(2012 / USA / Dir. Alison Klayman / 91 minutes/ In Chinese with English subtitles)

Registration 6:15PM
Screening at 6:30PM

“I think (by seeing the film) the audience will first gain some knowledge about who I am and what kind of issues I am always concerned about as an artist.”
- Ai Weiwei

Named by ArtReview as the most powerful artist in the world, Ai Weiwei is one of China's most celebrated contemporary artist, and its most outspoken domestic critic. In April 2011, when Ai disappeared into police custody for three months, he quickly became China’s most famous missing person. Having first risen to international prominence in 2008 after helping design Beijing’s iconic Bird’s Nest Olympic Stadium and then publicly denouncing the Games as party propaganda, Ai’s critiques of China’s regime have ranged from playful photographs of his raised middle finger in front of Tiananmen Square to searing memorials of the more than 5,000 schoolchildren who died in shoddy government construction during the 2008 Sichuan earthquake. Against a backdrop of strict censorship, Ai’s witty use of social media to inform his followers has turned him into an Internet champion.

First-time director Alison Klayman gained unprecedented access to the charismatic artist, as well as his family and others close to him, while working as a journalist in Beijing. This compelling documentary is the inside story of a passionate dissident for the digital age who inspires global audiences and blurs the boundaries of art and politics.

Alison Klayman is a freelance journalist and documentary filmmaker. While living in China from 2006-2010, she produced radio and television feature stories for PBS Frontline, National Public Radio, AP Television and others. She also began shooting her debut documentary feature, AI WEIWEI: NEVER SORRY, following the artist/activist for two years and gaining unprecedented access to his life and work. The film was awarded a Special Jury Prize for Spirit of Defiance at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival. Klayman grew up in the Philadelphia area and graduated from Brown University in 2006 with a degree in history. There she won both a C.V. Starr National Service Fellowship, and an Associated Press College Radio Award for General Reporting.

Video: Watch the trailer for Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry (2 min., 30 sec.):

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