Freedom for artists feted at festival
It was quite a sight: a $3.6 million project devoted to political activism and freedom that featured seven largescale installations incorporating sound, sculpture and mixed media in and around the most famous former prison in the world.
It was made all the more compelling because it was conceived by someone who was prevented from leaving his country because of his activism.
“@Large: Ai Weiwei on Alcatraz” was experienced by some 900,000 visitors to the Rock over a sevenmonth run in 201415. The curator of the series, Cheryl Haines, made seven trips between San Francisco and Beijing — where Ai, a former prisoner, lived under house arrest — to mount the massive project.
Thankfully, she filmed much of the proceedings. “Ai Weiwei: Yours Truly,” codirected by Haines and Gina Leibrecht, takes us behind the scenes, revealing the artist’s process and the complicated logistics.
“This project was the first of its kind in a national park,” said Haines, who is founder and director of the ForSite Foundation, a San Francisco nonprofit that commissions artworks to be shown anywhere but a museum or gallery. “There was a need for the State Department to weigh in. To their credit, they got the idea about a dissident artist who speaks loudly and clearly about what’s important for life and how to stand up for your beliefs and how important it is for the rest of us to support them in whatever way is possible.”
The documentary is part of the opening night festivities of the 22nd United Nations Association Film Festival, which begins with a reception at 5:30 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 17, at the Mitchell Park Community Center in Palo Alto. “Ai
Weiwei: Yours Truly” screens at 7 p.m.
UNAFF, which focuses on human rights, will feature 60 documentaries from around the world and six filmmaker panels through Oct. 27 at venues in Palo Alto, East Palo Alto and Stanford, as well as its traditional day in San Francisco on Wednesday, Oct. 23, at the Ninth Street Independent Film Center (145 Ninth St.). The theme this year is “Scales of Justice.”
As per policy, UNAFF does not seek or accept corporate sponsorship in order to preserve the integrity of the selection process.
“We do live next to Facebook and Google and all those big companies, but we do not have their support,” festival founder Jasmina Bojic said. “The reason is because we try to stay independent, and from the beginning we wanted our filmmakers to present their stories without any influence and interference from outside companies.”
Anyone following the recent kerfuffle between the NBA and China over protesters in Hong Kong can appreciate that corporate interests don’t always line up with activism.
And as a former political prisoner in China, Ai can well appreciate the authoritarian instincts of the Chinese government.
One of the most fascinating parts of the @Large installation and Haines’ film was the section called “Yours Truly,” some 92,000 postcards written to 176 imprisoned dissidents around the world, which at that time included U.S. whistleblower Chelsea Manning, who refused to testify in the WikiLeaks case. The prisoners were portrayed by Ai through Lego portraits in the section of the installation called “Trace.”
“We worked closely with Amnesty International and vetted that these people were incarcerated for reasons that were acceptable for their definition of prisoners of conscience,” Haines said. “We felt it was important not to just view the exhibition, but to participate. So we asked people to write messages to prisoners of conscience imprisoned in 22 countries.”
Many of the postcards reached the prisoners, some of whom said the messages gave them hope.
“For me, the special agency of this film is the connection between the artist and his experience with great activism that a lot of people didn’t know about — that I didn’t know about,” producer Christy McGill said. “This was art in action ... to create an ability for people moved by Ai Weiwei’s art to reach out to existing prisoners of conscience, who were suffering in silence and being deprived of freedom, and tell them they weren’t forgotten and to feel that connection.”
One postcard, sent to Vietnamese dissenter Trân Thi Nga, has a drawing of pink flowers and the message “Peace and Love.” To Iraqi journalist and prisoner Walid Yunis Ahmad, a drawing of hearts is accompanied with the message “Stay Strong — you are not alone and you matter.”
Words that pretty much sum up this year’s UNAFF lineup.