Ai Weiwei is known for many things – great architecture, subversive in-your-face art, and political activism. He has also called for greater transparency on the part of the Chinese state. Director Alison Klayman chronicles the complexities of Ai’s life for three years, beginning with his rise to public prominence via blog and Twitter after he questioned the deaths of more than 5,000 students in the 2008 Sichuan earthquake. The record continues through his widely publicized arrest in Beijing in April of 2011. As Ai prepares various works of art for major international exhibitions, his activism heats up, and his run-ins with China’s authorities become more and more frequent.
You May Also Like
A groundbreaking film that portrays the journey of Gigi Lazzarato, a fearless woman who began life as Gregory, posting fashion videos to YouTube from his bedroom, only to later come out as a transgender female. With never-before-seen personal footage, the film spotlights a family’s unwavering love for a child.
In 1986 Michael Morton’s wife Christine is brutally murdered in front of their only child, and Michael is convicted of the crime. Locked away in Texas prisons for a quarter century, he has years to ponder questions of justice and innocence, truth and fate. Though he is virtually invisible to society, a team of dedicated attorneys spends years fighting for the right to test DNA evidence found at the murder scene. Their discoveries ultimately reveal that the price of a wrongful conviction goes well beyond one man’s loss of freedom.
Five interwoven stories of remarkable courage from Nuremberg to Rwanda, from Darfur to Syria, and from apathy to action.
If the mind is strong it can take the body anywhere. – Ben Lecomte The Swim is about Ben Lecomte’s unprecedented attempt to survive the 5,500+ mile gauntlet from Japan to San Francisco. His mission – to be the first man to swim across the Pacific and show the world the affect humans are having on our oceans. Ben and his crew faced countless challenges including typhoons, sharks, equipment failure and far more plastic than they ever could have imagined.
Experiential cinema in its purest form, GUNDA chronicles the unfiltered lives of a mother pig, a flock of chickens, and a herd of cows with masterful intimacy. Using stark, transcendent black and white cinematography and the farm’s ambient soundtrack, Master director Victor Kossakowsky invites the audience to slow down and experience life as his subjects do, taking in their world with a magical patience and an other worldly perspective. GUNDA asks us to meditate on the mystery of animal consciousness, and reckon with the role humanity plays in it. Executive produced by Joaquin Phoenix.
With one of the most memorably stunning voices that has ever hit the airwaves, Linda Ronstadt burst onto the 1960s folk rock music scene in her early twenties.
Gaudi’s Sagrada Familia has been continuously under construction since 1882.
The film is a cinematic journey into the secrets of genius as told through the greatest athletes of all time. It includes original interviews with Wayne Gretzky, Pelé, Jerry Rice, and features Muhammad Ali, Serena Williams, and Michael Jordan, among others.
A documentary about the 20th century German sculptor and performance artist Joseph Beuys.
A film profiling the unusual cross-demographic fandom of the ostensibly girl oriented television series “My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic”
A documentary about the Jewish people in Romania and their several migrations towards Israel, across history and changing political frames – everything presented in a self-proclaimed dadaist style.
Canadian artists break into the American comics industry.