Disturbing the Peace

Film Information:
Year:

2009

Disturbing the Peace

País:

 

Director:

Ai Weiwei

Color:

Color

Format:

Digibeta

Duration:

79 min

Production:

  • FOTOGRAFÍA: Zhao Zhao
  • MONTAJE: Wang Xiaoxian
  • PRODUCCIÓN: Ai Weiwei Studio

Contact:

  • Zhang Yi Yang
  • E aiweiwei.net@gmail.com
  • W www.aiweiwei.com

Synopsis

Original Title: Lao ma ti hua

One of China’s most famous artists, Ai Weiwei, travelled with several researchers to Chengdu to testify at the trial of activist Tan Zuoren, who was arrested for daring to document the children killed by collapsed poorly constructed schools during the Sichuan Earthquake of 2008. Ai’s team documented everything with a digital camera, catching even a midnight police attack on his party in a hotel and their subsequent meetings with menacing or merely smug, bureaucratically obtuse police officials.

This film would be an entertaining, blackly humorous investigation of Kafkaesque police power if the participants themselves were not in danger, at any minute, of disappearing into the Chinese police/security system. But, in the face of arbitrary state power, Ai and his team maintain their confidence: enlightened, articulate, and indomitable.

Dates and Times