Ai Weiwei film focuses on human suffering

The artist Ai Weiwei’s been in town talking about his new documentary, “Human Flow,” and a crowd of art lovers, filmmakers and movie insiders — invited by the de Young Museum, the San Francisco Film Society, and the film’s producers and publicists — gathered at the museum on Tuesday, Oct. 3, for a screening.

When the artist’s exhibition “@Large: Ai Weiwei on Alcatraz” opened in 2014, he was still under house arrest in China, much admired but far away. Three years later, he lives in Berlin, and he is free to travel and to reap, firsthand, the adoration of his fans, to accept praise for his work and to pose enthusiastically (to put it mildly) for selfies with wellwishers who crowded around him after the screening.

The movie, about refugees in 23 countries, is utterly serious, and perhaps reflecting the voicelessness of the victims it portrays, large portions of its soundtrack are soundless. Much of it is set in deserts and other parched landscapes, and its somber mood was in particular contrast to the atmosphere of merriment with which attendees greeted him at the post-showing reception, mugging for snapshots, wolfing snacks and downing glasses of wine.

Telling the stories of the refugees and of the making of the film about them, the artist, apparently indefatigable, had some 15 appointments for interviews on Tuesday, including a Commonwealth Club Climate One program appearance that afternoon. Although he speaks English as well as you and I, in the Q&A that followed the main part of that program, a woman in the audience posed a long question (is there ever a Q&A in which someone doesn’t?) first in Mandarin, and then in English, asking him to talk about his soul.

The artist’s answer demonstrated that although he’s accessible, he’s not some cuddly Chinese panda. “First of all, you speak very good Japanese,” he said. “Second, about the soul, I think I should leave that for the Dalai Lama, because otherwise he would have nothing to do.”

P.S.: Peter Kaufman, who met Ai Weiwei while making a documentary on China years ago, is a good friend of his. Kaufman and his wife, Christine Pelosi, went to dinner with the artist and his assistant on Monday, Oct. 2, with Kaufman’s father, filmmaker Phil Kaufman, and Kelly Sultan. That’s a pretty high-powered group, but they were unable to get a reservation at Fang, their first choice. An Oracle event had bought out the place. At dinner, at the House of Nanking, many selfies were taken.

Doug Kroll was at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art when he heard one woman commenting to another about a Wayne Thiebaud streetscape: “That can’t be San Francisco. Look at all of the open parking spaces.”

Mark Rocha, chancellor of City College of San Francisco for three months, was quick, during Tuesday’s 13th annual Basic Skills fundraising luncheon, to establish where he stands. “I didn’t come here to talk about politics,” he told the crowd, “but I want you to know that I am one of the 16 million Americans who cast their first votes for George McGovern.”

This was a welcome how-do-you-do to the crowd gathered at the Fairmont to support a program that helps students at City College learn basic skills needed for making their way through community college and — in many cases — fouryear colleges. He continued further along the same road: “The problem is not that we spend too much,” he said of public support for such institutions. “The problem is that we need to spend more ... for a free City College.”

Keynote speaker Mark Leno spoke of students’ birthright of “a quality education” and about the Guardian Scholar Program that helps former foster children, expounding on the value of education in finding jobs, the challenges faced by the incarcerated and other civic challenges. His remarks were wide-ranging, as might be expected from a mayoral candidate.

“San Francisco is not an island,” said Rocha, in the kind of speech that we, the well-meaning, lap up with even more fervor than we lap up dessert (bittersweet chocolate and passion fruit dome, by the way). “We are a universe. We are fiercely proud of our diversity.” City College, he said, would demonstrate “how a community that is inclusive can prosper.”

PUBLIC“The Internet EAVESDROPPING is something I haven’t been passionate about since I was, like, 3.” Teenager on a Muni bus, overheard by Rob Mitchell