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CinemaTalk: Interview with Alison Klayman, director of “Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry”

Friday, February 3rd, 2012

By Maya Eva Gunst Rudolph

Alison Klayman (alisonklayman.com)

Alison Klayman is a journalist who, while living in China from 2006-2010, produced radio and television for news sources such as NPR’s “All Things Considered,” AP Television, Voice of America, Current TV, and CBC. She is the director of the documentary film Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry, which won the U.S. Documentary Special Jury Prize for Spirit of Defiance at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival. I spoke with Alison at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah about the film’s trajectory, the role of social media in making bringing this story to life, and her working relationship with China’s most notorious artist and filmmaker. Thanks to Alison and her team for their cooperation.

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dGenerate Films: Can you talk a little about the origins of your working relationship with Ai Weiwei and how the project got started?

Alison Klayman: I had been living in Beijing for about two years when my roommate, Stephanie Tung, who was working at Three Shadows [Photography Center, a gallery and cultural center in Caochangdi, Beijing] got me involved in an exhibition they were doing of Ai Weiwei’s photos from New York. The photos are kind of a“greatest hits” series of contemporary cultural figures in China and provided an interesting window into this cross-cultural understanding of New York that I was really drawn to. I was kind of underemployed at the time and Stephanie suggested I make a video to accompany the exhibition. Rong Rong [photographer and Three Shadows director] gave me the okay and I went from Three Shadows to Weiwei’s house with the camera already rolling. It was really natural and organic. I didn’t just show up at Weiwei’s door and say “I’m fascinated by you, I want to film you.” We finished the video and Weiwei liked. I think it showed who he really is—very charismatic and engaging, fun-loving, doesn’t take himself too seriously. And then projects just kept coming up, so I feel compelled to keep filming. That’s kind of the beauty of Beijing—it’s very open and you can easily fall into these kinds of projects unexpectedly.

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Posted in Chinese Cinema Events, CinemaTalk: Conversations on Chinese Cinema Studies, Film Festivals, Interviews, Other | No Comments »

2012 Melbourne Conference on China: Global Media and Public Diplomacy in Sino-Western Relations

Monday, January 16th, 2012

Announcement and Call for Papers
2012 Melbourne Conference on China: Global media and public diplomacy in Sino-Western relations

Date: Wednesday 30 May and Thursday 31 May 2012
Venue: The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia
Organisers: The Asia Institute and the Centre for Advanced Journalism at the University of Melbourne, and Radio Australia of the ABC
Website: www.chinastudies.unimelb.edu.au/conferences/2012
Contact: Conference-on-China@unimelb.edu.au

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Posted in Academic Resources, Other | No Comments »

“Thought Control” and the Dark Side of China’s Education System

Tuesday, January 10th, 2012

"Though I Am Gone" (dir. Hu Jie

China News Watch‘s Stephen Chan, discussing a recent CCTV broadcast, reports on recent efforts made by Xi Jinping and the CCP to “to step up ideological control of students and young lecturers” at Chinese Universities. Recently enacted, wide-spread initiatives to tighten controls and censorship of Chinese cultural life–from the internet to TV and film and beyond–are now increasingly apparent in the education system. Said Chan, “Universities have long been regarded as the most important stronghold for the party’s grip on ideology.”

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Posted in China Today, dGenerate Titles, Other | No Comments »

Protests in Wukan Dissolved After Weeks of Unrest

Thursday, December 22nd, 2011

"Crime and Punishment" (dir. Zhao Liang)

Protests in Guangdong Province’s Wukan Village, which began months ago in response to government seizure of collectively-owned agricultural lands, have suspended their protests after a representative of Wukan Village met to negotiate with Guangdong Province government officials.

The New York Times‘s Edward Wong reports:

In the meeting, which lasted for more than an hour outside Wukan, two senior provincial officials spoke to Lin Zuluan, 65, one of the villagers’ main representatives. Mr. Lin said after the meeting that the officials had agreed to three conditions set by the protesters, including freeing several villagers who had been detained, though the issue of the land sales remained unresolved.

“I was satisfied with how the meeting went,” Mr. Lin said. “Now they’ve opened up a new channel of communication, and it will help to build a closer relationship between the two sides.”

On Wednesday afternoon, Mr. Lin and other village leaders met to discuss their options and decided to call off the public protests and to reopen access to the village. It was unclear whether party officials who fled earlier would return and resume their jobs.

After that conclave, the village leaders held a rally with more than 1,000 residents in a public square and told the audience about the new agreement. When the villagers then dispersed, they took down protest banners hanging up near the square.

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Posted in China Today, dGenerate Titles, Other | No Comments »

Call For Proposals–Berkeley Summer Research Institute

Wednesday, December 21st, 2011

CALL FOR PROPOSALS
Berkeley Summer Research Institute
“Bordering China: Modernity and Sustainability”August 1-10, 2012
Institute of East Asian Studies
University of California, Berkeley

The Berkeley Summer Research Institute, organized in partnership with the
Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan, is pleased to announce its call for
proposals for an intensive residential research workshop that will take
place in the summer of 2012 at Berkeley.

Themes and TopicsFor much of the 20th century China defined its quest for modernity in
terms of the industrialization and the urbanization of its economy and
landscape. State policies and private initiatives in pursuit of specific
goals within this general framework have brought along significant
transformations. China today is a land of gleaming towers as well as
polluted air, of high-speed railroad connections as well as massive
population dislocations, of an abundance of manufacturing wealth as well
as a paucity of natural resources. A vibrant environmental discourse
meanwhile has been on the rise. Under the general heading of
“sustainability” this discourse calls attention to issues of social
equity, the power politics of resource allocations, the humanistic
constructions of people and nature, the globalization of world economies,
and the contestations over ecological imperialism.

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Posted in Academic Resources, Other | No Comments »

Tibet New Wave in the South China Morning Post

Monday, December 12th, 2011

By Nicola Davison

The following article originally appeared in the South China Morning Post. It is reprinted below with the permission of the author.

Filmmaker Pema Tseden

Under the flashy, big-budget productions coming out of the mainland, the quieter voices can drown. But while films such as Let the Bullets Fly rake in renminbi at the box office, a new wave of more contemplative films from Tibet are garnering critical attention both at home and abroad.

At the centre of the movement is Pema Tseden, the son of nomads and the only sibling of three to attain higher education. A graduate of the Beijing Film Academy, Pema Tseden, now 41, is the first filmmaker to make a feature in the Tibetan language using an all-Tibetan cast and crew, with The Silent Holy Stones (2005). His follow-up, The Search (2009), won the Grand Jury prize at the Shanghai International Film Festival while his latest, Old Dog, won the grand prize (and HK$100,000) at Tokyo Filmex last week. And his cinematographer Sonthar Gyal’s directorial debut The Sun-Beaten Path won the Dragons and Tigers Award at the Vancouver International Film Festival in October.

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Posted in Other | 1 Comment »

dGenerate’s Karin Chien Featured on Filmwax Podcast

Monday, December 5th, 2011

"Little Moth" (dir. Peng Tao)

Check out this podcast: dGenerate president Karin Chien chats with Filmax Film Series director Adam Shartoff on the perks and pitfalls of indie filmmaking worldwide, our philosophy and where the name “dGenerate” comes from, and the uphill battle to bring Chinese independent cinema into world view.

Says Karin:

“The films that we’re distributing here take incredible risks and they’re able to because they do work completely out of the system in China and they don’t have these market pressures to bear as we do in the states. And in a way, that’s crippling when it comes to distribution, but also freeing when it comes to making the films.”

Filmwax, a screening series with an emphasis on Brooklyn-based filmmakers and ventures, recently hosted a mini-series of dGenerate fare: Jian Yi’s Super, Girls! and Peng Tao‘s Little Moth.

Posted in Chinese Cinema Today, dGenerate Titles, Interviews, Other | No Comments »

Next Week’s Event: No.89 Shimen Road in Chicago

Thursday, November 17th, 2011

"No.89 Shimen Road"

No.89 Shimen Road in Chicago next Monday (Nov. 21th, 7pm), as Part of the Doc Films Monday Series: A Selection of Chinese Independent Cinema.

Shu Haolun‘s No.89 Shimen Road will be screened at Doc Films, next Monday (11/21) at 7pm.

Building from his acclaimed documentary Nostalgia, which commemorated the now-demolished neighborhoods of Shanghai, Shu Haolun’s first dramatic feature vividly resurrects the experience of social and cultural awakening in China during the 1980s. Shu weaves a rich tapestry of memory using multiple devices, including still photography, richly textured cinematography, and an elaborately recreated milieu rich with characters. No. 89 Shimen Road not only vividly recalls an era of China’s history, but a crisis in values affecting its youth that resonates with the present.

No.89 Shimen Road is the ninth of ten films to be screened at Doc Films Monday Series in collaboration with dGenerate Films.

Read more about No.89 Shimen Road:
http://dgeneratefilms.com/catalog/no-89-shimen-road/

For more information about the screening, please visit:
http://docfilms.uchicago.edu/dev/calendar/2011/fall/monday.shtml

Posted in Other | No Comments »

No. 89 Shimen Road Leads Winners of China Independent Film Festival

Monday, November 7th, 2011

By Kevin B. Lee

Last week the 8th China Independent Film Festival concluded with Shu Haolun’s film No 89. Shimen Road taking the prize for Best Feature Film. The film is the narrative debut of Shu, who has directed the award-winning documentaries Nostalgia and Struggle.

The festival jury also awarded prizes to Old Dog by Tibetan director Pema Tseden (Wanma Caidan), and Celestial Kingdom by writer-director Wang Chao (The Orphan of Anyang).

While the festival does not award a best documentary prize (opting for a showcase of the year’s top ten documentaries), this year it bestowed a special “True Character Award” to Tang Xiaoyan, the outspoken subject of the documentaries of Xu Tong (Fortune Teller and Shattered).

More info on No. 89 Shimen Road. A full list of winners after the break.

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Posted in Other | 2 Comments »

Eye-Opening Environmental Film “Beijing Besieged By Waste” Saturday at Asia Society

Monday, October 24th, 2011

Part of the documentary film series Visions of a New China at the Asia Society

Beijing Besieged by Waste
Dir. WANG Jiuliang
2011. China. 72 min. Digibeta. English subtitles.

October 29, 2011 – 3:00pm – 4:20pm
New York
725 Park Avenue, New York, NY
$7 members; $9 students/seniors; $11 nonmembers (Series discount available. Click on series link for more information.)

With a population of about 20 million, the growing city of Beijing produces 30,000 tons of waste each day. Photographer/filmmaker Wang Jiuliang traveled around the city and visited 460 legal and illegal landfills from 2008 to 2010 to document the collection of garbage and excrement, the environmental calamity and the life cycles around these landfills, which include scavengers building a precarious livelihood, green spaces forming on top of waste, and livestock being fed trash. An informative and alarming portrait of urban ecology, the film has earned keen Chinese media coverage and the attention of government officials.

Read full catalog description from dGenerate Films

Watch an interview with the filmmaker about this film:

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