Ai Weiwei's Documentary Double Feature

by Jaime Grijalba.

Anyone who is at least aware where his head stands above your shoulders should know who Ai Weiwei is, and if you don’t well, shame on you. Ai is, first of all, an artist, acomplished and famous around the globe for his take on post-modern art, his work in the United States in his formation years and as one of the most important figures coming from the asian art in the last decades. He is famous for his work with art and museum installations, as well as the curation of other expositions and projects, being interested in the areas of photography, architecture and more than ever, film. And as an artist, he’s a concious man, and as a man living in China, he’s a very complicated guy, and as an artist living in China, he can’t be other thing than an activist, a social and political critic of the current communist party of China that is trying too hard to cover up and stop talking about the most important matters of these days in a world that we see as approaching a social-responsive peak: democracy and human rights. The corrupt, menacing, dictatorial, murderous and simply evil government of China is actively trying to silence this artist, either whenever he is in his home country or whenever he’s out, trying to deligitimize his image to the international community, and even these days we can follow his tweets and cries for help even beyond the thick wall of the censorship in China when he’s being accused of some economical crime (like tax evasion, obviously smoke and mirrors) and he can’t even go to the court to make his discharge, and he may even go to jail without the possibility of defending himself. What kind of country is that? The one that Ai Weiwei tries to portray in the two films he has released in this year in secret, hiding from the chinese authorities and filming and accusing some of the attitudes and downright criminal face of the government of China.

Fei chang yi han (2012)

a.k.a. So Sorry

director Ai Weiwei

China, 55 min.

Ethical documentary directors, stay away from this piece of informative, denuntiative and emotional cinematographic punch in the stomach that this is. This rather short documentary film starts with the everyday life of Ai Weiwei in his security filled house (to avoid the potential raid and arrest from the chinese authorities) and how he defends himself from accusations and people that follow him around whenever he goes out of his house. While I was watching it, I felt how the ethical filmmaker rose in indignation when they forced the camera through the side-window of a car of one of the supposed spies of Ai Weiwei’s activity and forced him to talk due to constant repetitions of questions, actually harrasing him a bit, but still I think they justify it after we start seeing what is behind all of this. Ai Weiwei has been one of the principal critics of the situation of China and specially of the Shichuan schools corruption scandal, when a bunch of schools poorly made crushed thousands of children after the Shichuan earthquake in 2008, without an inmediate response from the government and infinite attempts to silence and hide the events that led to the death of the kids (the badly constructed schoolhouses were the ones to blame, and hence, the officials who instructed to build them that way in the first place), so as we know, the dark ways of the chinese government try to make him shut up about it or else. The film then show us one of the most infamous events in his life as a political responsive human being: being thrown in jail with no charges made, just because he didn’t like that a few kids died. We then jump to Germany, where he is curating an art presentation of his work called “So Sorry”, that gives the name to this film, and as we see the art exhibition and its impact on the german city, we see how Ai Weiwei’s health starts to deteriorate. We don’t see the link, but we can make assumptions, and the fact that they actually don’t spell it out for you, specially in this instant of the film, is what makes it one of the most powerful achievements in documentaries this year. The best part about it? It’s on youtube, so people from all over the world can see the situation in which Ai Weiwei lives these days. It’s not perfectly made, as the camera crew isn’t as professional as you would wish, but the editing is what makes this film powerful. (Rating: ****)

Eerduosi 100 (2012)

a.k.a. Ordos 100

director Ai Weiwei

China, 61 min.

Now this also short documentary isn’t as blatantly political as the one we mentioned first, but still manages to deliver a message about the corruption and overall confusion between the officials and people in charge of the different international and national projects that are made nowadays to make China look a bit better on the eyes of the rest of the countries. Ordos 100 is an architecute project by the owners of a piece of land in the dessert of Ordos in China, they plan to build there 100 houses and have a 100 architects from all over the world to come and design one house each for it to be the most incredible and amazing idea since sliced bread, having a city featuring the best, the famous and the emerging architecture artists from every corner in the world to make a house for you and your rich family. Ai Weiwei is there not as one of the architects, but as a jury and curator of the whole project, the one that will look at every project presented by the different artists and aproove them or not, and saying how they mix with one another, finding some kind of equilibrium between the distinct and different visions. The documentary shows us interviews with many of the architects and how they feel about the liberty given in terms of their designs, and at the same time a fear approaches: will the project ever be done? Different problems with the money that is being paid or given to the different participants of the endeavour is giving some people second thoughts on all. While the presence of Ai Weiwei is not as prominent as in ‘So Sorry’ (2012), he appears just in the right time to protest along with the other foreign participants about the money that will be spent on the project and with the fact that if it will ever come to fruition. Filmed a few years ago, we are never answered about the final state of the project today, and even if it ends with a celebration, it seems empty and inconclusive. The shooting style is more controlled here, maybe because of its enormous amount of talking heads interviews and slow approach to the real subject: corruption and uncertainity about the character of the chinese people in charge. Even with that, it’s still quite good to check it out on youtube so you can see what I mean. (Rating: ***1/2)

I hope you are more informed on the character and views of this guy who is right now in a difficult process. Open your eyes and see.

About these ads