Crisis of humanity
Artist makes doc about upheaval around the world
Activist and artist Ai Weiwei is known for his role in such documentaries as Andreas Johnsen’s The Fake Case and Alison Klayman’s Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry, both dealing with his clashes with the Chinese government. His artwork famously criticized its handling of a 2008 earthquake that killed thousands of students in poorly constructed schools.
Now the 60-year-old has embarked on a major role as director of Human Flow, a documentary that chronicles the issue of refugee migration across the planet. Travelling through Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Asia and North America, he finds vast populations on the move, but often penned in by a growing number of physical and bureaucratic barriers.
“It’s my personal journey,” he says during a stop in Toronto to promote the film. “I had to make contact with those refugees, to see them as part of me, or to see myself as part of them.”
By the end of his year-long, 23-nation journey, Ai discovered that the refugee crisis has many faces, from Palestinians uprooted for generations to more recent upheavals in Iraq and Syria, and developing situations as in Myanmar. But what struck him most were the similarities of the people he met.
“Technically, the Africans are very different from the Middle East,” he says. “But I think there can be one solution, which is about defending human dignity and humanity. In that, we can find a common ground in dealing with different types of refugees — some are historical, some happened recently or are going to happen more in the future.
“That’s why our film is trying to show the humanity in every aspect, and to say here is something we all have in common; we all can identify with this. The solution has to have this foundation; otherwise people have all kinds of excuses for their own behaviour.”
He mentions Germany and Canada as two nations that have tried to deal humanely with the refugee crisis.
“I think the attitude toward refugees clearly shows how we think about ourselves,” he says.
“Canadians are a nation structured by immigrants, and people know what it means to have the possibility of a safe shelter and space to develop the society and the individual. It shows what kind of confidence ... and what kind of vision that nation has. It’s really about self-identity.”
Ultimately, Ai hopes the scope of the film will leave people with the understanding that refugee issues are not a Canadian or Syrian or European problem, but a global issue.
“That concept has to be repeatedly announced because as human beings we need to understand that if one person’s rights are being violated, we’re all being put in the shadow of letting that happen. This is just something where we will never find an excuse to turn our face away. We have to recognize we are part of this refugee crisis, this human crisis.”