Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry

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Ai Weiwei street art on the Lower East Side.

Photo taken by Allison Wang, 9/27/2013.

[friendsofaiweiwei]

WEIWEI-ISM#66 “I think restrictions are an essential condition in the fight for freedom of expression. It’s also a source for any kind of creativity.”

[friendsofaiweiwei]

Just launched these SnapBracelets to raise awareness to our mission to promote “Free Expression” via art and activism featuring iconic quotes from Ai Weiwei, who continues to face his own challenges to secure release of his #passport for international travel.  If you are an artist inspired by social activism and this message, please be in contact.

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Alison Klayman discusses the making of Ai Weiwei Never Sorry and its worldwide impact after winning the Alfred I. duPont award from Columbia's School of Journalism.

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Filmmaker Giving Voice to Acts of Rage in Today'€™s China

Reports of ordinary Chinese being driven to violence persuaded the director Jia Zhangke to put aside his first big-budget martial arts film and tell their story instead.

“It seems to me a response to an emergency...Certain things need to be said, and need to be said directly, clearly, to as large, and as activated, a Chinese audience as possible.” -Shelly Kraicer, Beijing based film critic and curator

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Ai Weiwei mural in Amsterdam, photographed last year

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Alison Klayman on NYTimes' 20 Directors to Watch list

"When the New Yorker Alison Klayman moved to China in 2006, she spoke no Chinese. She spent years making 'Ai Weiwei' and now she speaks Mandarin. Next up: a move to Japan and a 'narrative feature that takes a comedic look at Hollywood’s deepening relationship with China.' "

Read more at: http://nyti.ms/17b8l77

Watch her video for the NYtimes "Bronze Factory, Beijing" at: http://nyti.ms/17AXGzt

Follow Alison on twitter @aliklay

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Why is Castro Afraid of Ai Weiwei? Last night, the Cuban independent think-tank, Estado de SATS, hosted a screening of “Never Sorry,” a documentary about famed artist and democracy activist, Ai Weiwei. In response, the Castro regime undertook a repressive operation to prevent activists from attending the screening. Read more at: http://bit.ly/16kulfF

Capitol Hill Cubans, An Insider’s View on U.S. Foreign Policy

[friendsofaiweiwei]

This is the first in a series of high quality gelskins and cases designed to personalize and protect portable devices. Proceeds go to help fund our efforts to raise awareness to the challenges Ai Weiwei faces with the Chinese Authorities and promote free expression via art and activism around the world. Thank you for your support and following.

Learn More:  http://bit.ly/16H1kIo

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How Laura Poitras Helped Snowden Spill His Secrets

It all started with her own fight against surveillance.

  -about our friend, supporter and personal hero, Laura Poitras

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A screenwriting class at Chapman University's Dodge College of Film & Media Arts in Singapore after a screening of Ai Weiwei Never Sorry.

Spring, 2013.

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Q: You accompanied Ai to the police station in Chengdu police station, when he went to file the lawsuit after his beating. That must have been a tense situation? A: Ai Weiwei had his own filming of the interaction. The police had their own filming of what was occurring. Evan Osnos [former China correspondent for the New Yorker] and I were singled out for being foreign journalists, and we were asked to delete portions of our material. There had been instances when the tape was directly confiscated without discussion, they would just open my camera and take the tape out. But in that instance, I had just changed it to a fresh tape, so they confiscated a blank tape. Something I’d been taught by Ai Weiwei is to constantly be changing my tape should something like this happen. The overriding concerns whenever I was filming out in the field were that I wouldn’t get anyone else in trouble, that my presence wasn’t going to negatively impact what Ai Weiwei was doing or, God forbid, result in extra suspicion on one of the Chinese citizens I was with. The concern after that was to get the shot, and keep the tape. Read more at: http://world.time.com/2013/08/09/qa-alison-klayman-director-of-the-first-full-length-film-on-chinese-artist-ai-weiwei/#ixzz2bVjTF6D0

Alison Klayman on making Ai Weiwei Never Sorry,  Aug. 9, 2013.

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WEIWEI-ISM#2 “A small act is worth a million thoughts.”

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WEIWEI-ISM#49 “A fine line separates Chinese intellectuals and professors from the political gangsters who protect them.”

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Behjat Omer Abdulla created this stunning portrait of Wei Wei— with Behjat O A.

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FATHERS & SONS -- “I don’t want my next generation to still have to fight the same things as I did. And I did it because my father’s generation didn’t do a good job.”

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A message from Chinese artist Ai Weiwei, one of Foreign Policy’s 2012 Top 100 Global Thinkers. An excerpt of this message was shown at FP’s Global Thinkers gala in Washington, DC on Nov. 29, 2012