Ai Weiwei
Biography: Ai Weiwei is a Chinese contemporary artist and activist. Ai grew up in the far north-west of China, where he lived under harsh conditions due to his father's exile. As an activist, he has been openly critical of the Chinese Government's stance on democracy and human rights. He investigated government corruption and cover-ups, in particular the Sichuan schools corruption scandal following the collapse of schools in the 2008 Sichuan earthquake. In 2011, Ai Weiwei was arrested at Beijing Capital International Airport on 3 April, for allegedly economic crimes. He was detained for 81 days without charge. Ai Weiwei emerged as a vital instigator in Chinese cultural development, an architect of Chinese modernism, and one of the nation's most vocal political commentators. Ai Weiwei encapsulates political conviction and his personal poetry in his many sculptures, photographs and public works. In doing this, he makes use of Chinese art forms to display the Chinese political and social issues. After being allowed to leave China in 2015, he has lived in Berlin, Germany, and, since 2019, in Cambridge, UK, with his family, working and traveling internationally.
Place of Birth: Not available
Birthday: August 28, 1957
Deathday: N/A
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Known For
Ithaka
2022-04-21
Ithaka
Overview: The campaign to free Julian Assange takes on intimate dimensions in this documentary portrait of an elderly man’s fight to save his son. Arguably the world’s most famous political prisoner, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is a figure pretty much everybody has an opinion about; perhaps more importantly, he serves as the emblem of an international arm wrestle over freedom of journalism, government corruption and unpunished war crimes. For his family members who face the prospect of losing him forever to the abyss of the US justice system, however, this David-and-Goliath struggle is personal – and, with his health declining in a British maximum-security prison and American government prosecutors pulling out all the stops to extradite him, the clock is ticking.
Genres: Documentary
Original Language: en
Release Date: 2022-04-21
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Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry
2012-06-14
Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry
Overview: An account of the many tribulations that Chinese artist Ai Weiwei, known for his subversive art and political activism, endured between 2008 and 2011, from his rise to world fame via the Internet to his highly publicized arrest due to his frequent and daring confrontations with the Chinese authorities.
Genres: Documentary
Original Language: en
Release Date: 2012-06-14
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Disturbing the Peace
2009-12-31
Disturbing the Peace
Overview: "Disturbing the Peace" is a documentary of an incident during Tan Zuoren's trial on August 12, 2009. Tan Zuoren was charged with inciting subversion of state power. Chengdu police detained witnessed during the trial of the civil rights advocate, which is an obstruction of justice and violence. Tan Zuoren was charged as a result of his research and questioning regarding the 5.12 Wenchuan students' casualties and the corruption resulting poor building construction. Tan Zuoren was sentenced five years to prison.
Genres: Documentary
Original Language: zh
Release Date: 2009-12-31
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Ai Weiwei Drifting
2017-06-13
Ai Weiwei Drifting
Overview: Ai Weiwei is a global star and an enigma. DW followed him for a year for this intimate portrait. The film shows Ai Weiwei at home, at work, and on the road for work, as he prepares his latest series of works focused on refugees and their fates.
Genres: Documentary
Original Language: en
Release Date: 2017-06-13
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Eric Ravilious: Drawn to War
2022-07-01
Eric Ravilious: Drawn to War
Overview: One of Britain’s greatest landscape artists, Eric Ravilious, is killed in a plane crash while on commission as Official War Artist in Iceland in 1942. His life is as compelling and enigmatic as his art, set against the dramatic wartime locations that inspire him. This film brings to life this unique and still grossly undervalued British artist caught in the crossfire of war 80 years ago, whose legacy largely sank without trace, until now…
Genres: Documentary
Original Language: en
Release Date: 2022-07-01
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Ai Weiwei's Appeal ¥15,220,910.50
2014-01-23
Ai Weiwei's Appeal ¥15,220,910.50
Overview: Ai Weiwei’s Appeal ¥15,220,910.50 opens with Ai Weiwei’s mother at the Venice Biennial in the summer of 2013 examining Ai’s large S.A.C.R.E.D. installation portraying his 81 day imprisonment. The documentary goes onto chronologically reconstruct the events that occurred from the time he was arrested at the Beijing airport in April 2011 to his final court appeal in September 2012. The film portrays the day-to-day activity surrounding Ai Weiwei, his family and his associates ranging from consistent visits by the authorities, interviews with reporters, support and donations from fans, and court dates. The Film premiered at the International Film Festival Rotterdam on January 23, 2014.
Genres: Documentary
Original Language: zh
Release Date: 2014-01-23
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Clockwork Orange: The Prophecy
2023-11-08
Clockwork Orange: The Prophecy
Overview: Examines and re-evaluates the 60-year history and cultural impact of A Clockwork Orange, as a novel, movie and stage play, with the help of archival content and interviews with important creative figures.
Genres: Documentary
Original Language: fr
Release Date: 2023-11-08
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Vincent van Gogh Superstar
2019-11-05
Vincent van Gogh Superstar
Overview: Documentary about famous painter Vincent van Gogh.
Genres: Documentary
Original Language: fr
Release Date: 2019-11-05
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The Sand Storm
2014-08-30
The Sand Storm
Overview: In the not-quite end-times, a woman, a man, a lover and a water smuggler navigate a tumultuous future city on the brink of a water shortage. A "low-fi sci-fi film" secretly made in China.
Genres: Science Fiction Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 2014-08-30
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Ai Weiwei: The Fake Case
2013-11-30
Ai Weiwei: The Fake Case
Overview: After 81 days of solitary detention world famous 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, police agents follow his every move, and heavy restrictions from the Kafkaesque Chinese authorities weigh him down. Journalists, the art world and his family all want a piece of him and on top of that he is met with a gigantic lawsuit from the Chinese government, soon to be named 'The Fake Case'. Ai Weiwei is shaken, but during the 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. Ai Weiwei strongly believes that China is ready for change. And he will do everything to make it happen.
Genres: Documentary
Original Language: en
Release Date: 2013-11-30
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Ai Weiwei: Without Fear or Favour
2010-11-16
Ai Weiwei: Without Fear or Favour
Overview: Arts documentary, first broadcast before Ai Weiwei's arrest by the Chinese authorities in April 2011, and his subsequent release after being detained for 11 weeks. Architect, photographer, curator and blogger, Ai Weiwei is China's most famous and politically outspoken contemporary artist. Alan Yentob explores the story of Ai Weiwei's life and art, and reveals how this most courageous and determined of artists continues to fight for artistic freedom of expression while living under the restrictive shadows of authoritarian rule.
Genres: Documentary
Original Language: en
Release Date: 2010-11-16
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Free to Create - Artists in Exile
2024-02-13
Free to Create - Artists in Exile
Overview: Artists forced to leave their country talk about the ambivalence of exile. With Iranian actress Golshifteh Farahani, Chinese artist Ai Weiwei, Sudanese graphic designer Anwar, and members of the Russian feminist protest group Pussy Riot.
Genres: Documentary
Original Language: de
Release Date: 2024-02-13
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Flowers of Taipei: Taiwan New Cinema
2014-10-01
Flowers of Taipei: Taiwan New Cinema
Overview: With Taiwan remaining in the grip of martial law in 1982, a group of filmmakers from that country set out to establish a cultural identity through cinema and to share it with the world. This engaging documentary looks at the movement's legacy.
Genres: Documentary
Original Language: zh
Release Date: 2014-10-01
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The Chinese Lives of Uli Sigg
2017-08-03
The Chinese Lives of Uli Sigg
Overview: Swiss collector Uli Sigg has played in the time of economic opening of China by Mao an essential role, which is still continuing. To better understand China, in 1980 as an entrepreneur and business expert to the country called Sigg art turns to and wears for years the most important collection of contemporary Chinese art together. THE CHINESE LIVES OF ULI SIGG granted for the first time a comprehensive insight into the exciting and extraordinary life of the entrepreneur, diplomat and art collector. Contemporary artists like Ai Weiwei, Zeng Fanzhi, Cao Fei, Fang Lijun Wang Guangyi or consider him a friend and mentor to whom they could entrust their works, to protect them against the arbitrary destruction of the authorities. The majority of them are over the Sigg museum M + in Hong Kong, which expected to open in 2019 and the works will be presented to the general public.
Genres: Documentary
Original Language: de
Release Date: 2017-08-03
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Hormone
2011-04-22
Hormone
Overview:
Genres: Drama Comedy
Original Language: zh
Release Date: 2011-04-22
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Ai Weiwei - Evidence
2014-09-01
Ai Weiwei - Evidence
Overview: Documentary about artist Ai Weiwei's 2014 exhibition in Berlin.
Genres: Documentary
Original Language: en
Release Date: 2014-09-01
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KUN 13: Criticizing Ai Weiwei and Wu Haohao
2012-08-21
KUN 13: Criticizing Ai Weiwei and Wu Haohao
Overview: An uncomfortable encounter between the filmmaker and the famed artist.
Genres: Documentary
Original Language: zh
Release Date: 2012-08-21
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Why Are We Creative?: The Centipede's Dilemma
2018-09-07
Why Are We Creative?: The Centipede's Dilemma
Overview: A 30 years odyssey: the world's most intriguing artists and thinkers from the fields of visual art, music, filmmaking, acting, literature, philosophy, politics, business and science, are asked the same question: "Why are you creative?"
Genres: Documentary
Original Language: de
Release Date: 2018-09-07
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Propaganda: The Art of Selling Lies
2019-04-28
Propaganda: The Art of Selling Lies
Overview: From ancient cave paintings to Twitter feeds and deep fakes, propaganda's rapid progression hasn't compromised its potency. Tracing its effective use by religious figures, politicians and marketers, director Larry Weinstein crafts a persuasive study of the mechanics behind propaganda. This fascinating investigation confronts us with timely questions: If we grow up surrounded by propaganda, how do we know what is true? What risks are inherited by a society tricked into their perceptions? Freedom of speech is critical to a democracy's survival, yet demagogues have consistently exploited that freedom to coerce willing supporters. Contemporary artists, including Kent Monkman, Shepard Fairey and Ai Weiwei, analyze their politically motivated work, creatively co-opting the conventions of disinformation that have permeated their respective cultures. As our platforms for spreading ideas continue to expand in a digital age, dangerous lies have never been better disguised.
Genres: Documentary
Original Language: en
Release Date: 2019-04-28
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The Rest
2019-03-22
The Rest
Overview: Europe's refugees are met at eye level in a film by the Chinese artist Ai Weiwei, who defends the ideals of humanism in the midst of the crisis.
Genres: Documentary
Original Language: en
Release Date: 2019-03-22
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Ai Weiwei en Buenos Aires
2018-01-15
Ai Weiwei en Buenos Aires
Overview: The documentary registers with detail this first visit to Argentina. It's a meditation on the artistic and conceptual processes that Ai Weiwei needs to think of his art. The images dialogue between the director and his instagram, revealing an intimate side, close to the people.
Genres: No genres available
Original Language: en
Release Date: 2018-01-15
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Ai Weiwei: Yours Truly
2019-04-14
Ai Weiwei: Yours Truly
Overview: Ai Weiwei, famous for his large-scale installation work and his dogged social justice advocacy, created a career-defining work in 2015 with @Large, mounted at Alcatraz, the emblematic site associated with egregious incarceration conditions and radical Native American protest. At the core of @Large were portraits of prisoners of conscience coupled with the opportunity to write letters of solidarity to the imprisoned. In her impassioned and powerful film, exhibition curator Cheryl Haines visits several current and former prisoners, including American whistleblower Chelsea Manning, and learns how these letters were vital to their survival. “The misconception of totalitarianism is that freedom can be imprisoned. This is not the case. When you constrain freedom, freedom will take flight and land on a windowsill.” — Ai Weiwei
Genres: Documentary
Original Language: en
Release Date: 2019-04-14
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Little Girl's Cheeks
2009-12-31
Little Girl's Cheeks
Overview: On December 15, 2008, a citizens' investigation began with the goal of seeking an explanation for the casualties of the Sichuan earthquake that happened on May 12, 2008. The investigation covered 14 counties and 74 townships within the disaster zone, and studied the conditions of 153 schools that were affected by the earthquake. By gathering and confirming comprehensive details about the students, such as their age, region, school, and grade, the group managed to affirm that there were 5,192 students who perished in the disaster. Among a hundred volunteers, 38 of them participated in fieldwork, with 25 of them being controlled by the Sichuan police for a total of 45 times. This documentary is a structural element of the citizens' investigation.
Genres: Documentary
Original Language: zh
Release Date: 2009-12-31
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Eat, Drink and Be Merry
2003-07-01
Eat, Drink and Be Merry
Overview: In 2003, the infectious disease SARS quickly spread across China, causing widespread panic. At the peak of the hysteria accompanying the mysterious epidemic, Ai Weiwei and his brother Ai Dan made a short film together, Ai Weiwei’s first. The film depicts the defiantly carefree attitude of their bohemian group of friends against the ominous backdrop of the SARS outbreak.
Genres: Documentary
Original Language: zh
Release Date: 2003-07-01
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Ai Weiwei: Sunflower Seeds
2010-10-14
Ai Weiwei: Sunflower Seeds
Overview: Art is a tool to set up new questions. An interview with Ai Weiwei about the work behind is installation "Sunflower Seeds", on display at Tate Modern from 12 October 2010 to 2 May 2011. Sunflower Seeds is made up of millions of small works, each apparently identical, but acutally unique. However realistic they may seem, the life-sized sunflower seed husks are in fact intricately hand-crafted in porcelain, by the inhabitants of a small village close to Bejing.
Genres: Documentary
Original Language: en
Release Date: 2010-10-14
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