Vivos
On the night of 26 September 2014, 43 students disappeared in Mexico. Since then, their families have been trying desperately, but unsuccessfully, to find out what happened to them. Ai Weiwei’s film focuses on the families and survivors, but points to a much more serious problem — the tens of thousands of people who have disappeared in Mexico without a trace. In the background we see the conscious neglect of the authorities, systemic injustice and police violence, while the film patiently and meticulously puts together the puzzle pieces. The families, helpless in the face of the abuse of power, struggle against the emotional burden of disappearances through collective protest, organizing demonstrations and mutual support.
Ai Weiwei (born in 1957, in Beijing, China) is an internationally renowned artist and political activist. He is appraised for making strong aesthetic statements that resonate with timely phenomena across today’s geopolitical world. From architecture to installations, social media to documentaries, Ai uses a wide range of mediums as expressions of new ways for his audiences to examine society and its values. Ai is the recipient of the 2015 Ambassador of Conscience Award from Amnesty International and the 2012 Václav Havel Prize for Creative Dissent from the Human Rights Foundation. Ai has made numerous documentaries about social and political issues that have won major film festival awards, including Disturbing the Peace (2009), One Recluse (2010), So Sorry (2012), Ordos 100 (2012) and Ai Weiwei’s Appeal ¥15,220.910.50 (2014). In the mid-2010s, Ai turned his attention to the global refugee crisis with several projects, including the 2017 documentary film Human Flow, his first feature-length documentary, which premiered at the 74th Venice Film Festival in competition. He is currently based in Berlin.