Ai Weiwei: Yours Truly

Documentary

2019, Movie, 1h 16min

Ai Weiwei, famous for his large-scale installation work and his dogged social justice advocacy, created a career-defining work in 2015 with @Large, mounted at Alcatraz, the emblematic site associated with egregious incarceration conditions and radical Native American protest. At the core of @Large were portraits of prisoners of conscience coupled with the opportunity to write letters of solidarity to the imprisoned. In her impassioned and powerful film, exhibition curator Cheryl Haines visits several current and former prisoners, including American whistleblower Chelsea Manning, and learns how these letters were vital to their survival. “The misconception of totalitarianism is that freedom can be imprisoned. This is not the case. When you constrain freedom, freedom will take flight and land on a windowsill.” — Ai Weiwei

Country: United States

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7.8

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8.0

Reviews

Critic Peter Bradshaw

rated

...a very absorbing and valuable documentary about the creation of this artwork, which relates to Ai’s honourable record of using art as memorialist-activism.

Read full review at The Guardian

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Frequently asked questions

What is Ai Weiwei: Yours Truly about? Toggle content

"Ai Weiwei: Yours Truly" is a documentary that showcases the transformative power of art and the resilience of the human spirit. While under house arrest in Beijing, artist Ai Weiwei created an exhibition at Alcatraz, a former prison turned national park, that allowed visitors to write messages of hope to imprisoned activists around the world. The exhibition featured Lego portraits ofthe activists, and by the end of the exhibition, over 90,000 postcards had been sent. In a surprising turn of events, the prisoners and their families began writing back, highlighting the impact of art in bringing people together and fostering solidarity.

Where can I stream Ai Weiwei: Yours Truly? Toggle content

You can stream Ai Weiwei: Yours Truly on: Apple TV

What movies are similar to Ai Weiwei: Yours Truly? Toggle content

Some movies that have similar genres and were produced around the same time as Ai Weiwei: Yours Truly include David Foster: Off the Record, India's Daughter, Roxette Diaries, Dahomey, The Many Worlds of Quantum Mechanics, The Bleeding Edge.