NEW VIEWS Documentaries & Dialogue – “Ai Weiwei The Fake Case”
NEW VIEWS Documentaries & Dialogue
Documentary filmmaking plays an important role in the sharing of ideas, and as an art form gives voice to issues of critical importance. The Aspen Institute Arts Program and Aspen Film bring to the Roaring Fork Valley NEW VIEWS Documentaries & Dialogue, a series featuring critically acclaimed documentaries and conversations with special guests. NEW VIEWS is generously sponsored by Leonard Lauder, and Jane and Michael Eisner.
“Powerful. Moving. Absorbing. The world’s press turns off their cameras, but it is here that Andreas Johnsen’s film begins. Fascinating.”– Screen
After 81 days of solitary detention, internationally renowned Chinese artist Ai Weiwei is put under house arrest. He suffers from sleeping disorder and memory loss, 18 cameras are monitoring his studio and home 24/7, police agents follow his every move, and heavy restrictions from the Kafkaesque Chinese authorities weigh him down. Picking up where Alison Klayman’s “Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry” left off, “Ai Weiwei the Fake Case” is more explicitly political, reflecting Ai’s battle against the gigantic lawsuit thrust upon him by the Chinese government in an effort to silence him. Ai Weiwei is shaken, but, during his year on probation, he steadily finds new ways to provoke and challenge the mighty powers of the Chinese authorities in his fight for human rights and free expression. This is a humanizing portrait of a fearless provocateur willing to speak his truth by any artistic means necessary. (Directed by Andreas Johnsen, Denmark, 79 min. In English and Mandarin with English subtitles.)
Artist and Ai Weiwei expert An Xiao Mina in a post screening conversation.
Tickets at www.aspenshowtix.com, (970) 920-5770, or through the Wheeler Opera House.