Disturbing the Peace and more

Disturbing the Peace

2010. China. Directed by Ai Weiwei. Artist and social activist Ai Weiwei has made several documentaries about his activities, but nowhere is he as prominent as in this chronicle of his troubles with local authorities during a trip to Chengdu in 2009. Traveling to support a detained civil rights advocate investigating corruption related to the 2008 Sichuan earthquake, Ai is assaulted in his hotel room and arrested by police. His subsequent investigation is both an unprecedented object lesson in civil rights self-defense and something akin to performance art, as he confronts the justice system to a breathtaking degree. Courtesy of Ai Weiwei Studio. In Mandarin, Sichuan dialect; English subtitles. 78 min.

The Questioning

2013. China. Directed by Zhu Rikun. As a producer, festival programmer, and distributor, Zhu Rikun has long served as a bastion of China’s independent documentary movement. On July 25, 2012, he visited three human rights workers in Jiangxi province and was questioned by local police. Zhu turns their encounter into a real-time demonstration of civil disobedience, deconstructing the logic of interrogation. In Mandarin; English subtitles. 22 min.