Alison Klayman on Filming Ai Weiwei

Posted on February 22, 2013 by ITVS Staff

Independent Lens sat down with filmmaker Alison Klayman to talk about the joys and challenges of filming China’s most famous artist and dissident, Ai Weiwei. Her film, Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry, premieres on Independent Lens February 25 at 10 PM (check local listings).

Ai Weiwei is arguably the most internationally celebrated Chinese artist of the modern era. At heart, he is a troublemaker with a serious agenda: to challenge the oppression of the Chinese people by their government with rebellious and irreverent gestures. His activism has cost him his freedom repeatedly, but he never seems to lose his childlike approach to serious dissidence executed with a wink. But what was it like to film such a celebrated and controversial figure? Filmmaker Alison Klayman gives us insider access to the one and only Ai Weiwei.

Filmmaker Alison Klayman with Ai Weiwei

What impact do you hope this film will have?

I believe there are several layers of impact to the film. The first is that people get to know Ai Weiwei as a person, going behind the headlines and the iconography. As a documentary film, Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry is able to provide a much more intimate understanding of Ai Weiwei’s character and motivations than a short news story can, and it hopefully means that audiences will follow his case as it continues to develop.

By watching the film people also get a window into many aspects of contemporary China they might not have seen before. I hope it shows China as a complex place, with lots of diversity of opinion and a rich community of artists, activists and young people who care about improving their country.

Most importantly, though, are the universal lessons contained in the film. It’s really a story about individual courage, about how creativity and finding your voice can lead to change, how social media is transforming our world, how rule of law and transparency and freedom of expression are important in any society.

What led you to make this film?

When I graduated from Brown University in 2006 I wanted to travel abroad to have adventures, learn new languages, and try to start a career as a journalist and documentary filmmaker. I started my journey by going on a five-month trip to China with a college classmate, and I unexpectedly ended up staying there for four years.

It wasn’t until 2008 that I first met Chinese artist Ai Weiwei. My first few weeks of filming were enough to convince me that he was a charismatic and fascinating character, and that I wanted to dig deeper into his story. I wanted to know more about who Ai Weiwei really was, what motivates his art and activism, and what would happen to him. I also thought that people around the world would learn something new about China by being introduced to him. Continue reading →

Brad Lichtenstein on How BizVizz Can Help You Shop Smarter

Posted on February 5, 2013 by ITVS Staff

Filmmaker Brad Lichtenstein, the man behind the new app BizVizz

BizVizz is a brand-new free iPhone app that makes corporate behavior transparent and available to all. Just snap a picture of a brand’s logo or bar code, and presto: A simple, graphic screen tells you the financial truth about 300 of America’s largest corporations.

Independent Lens sat down with BizVizz co-founder Brad Lichtenstein, the filmmaker behind the award-winning PBS Independent Lens documentary, As Goes Janesville, to find out more about the app.

Congratulations on BizVizz going live! OK, so let’s set the scene for the app’s practical use. I’m shopping. I see my favorite cereal, and scan the logo on my smartphone using BizVizz. Up pops all kinds of information about the company: profits, donations, taxes paid, government subsidies, etc. What am I supposed to do with this information?

A lot of people these days are very conscious of how the products they use and consume are made. Fair trade, green, how a company treats its workforce — these are values people care about. We think BizVizz is another way for people to shop their values, especially when we are into our fifth year of economic recovery and asked to sacrifice.

We think people will care when they learn that one company pays their fair share of taxes vs. another that pays none at all. BizVizz is such an easy way for people to find out this information, plus it’s fun to take pictures of logos — though maybe not so fun to learn that all of the brands on the typical grocery shelf lead to just a couple of companies.

Could an app that easily reveals this kind of information be seen by some as anti-business?
BizVizz shows that this exerting influence is not a Republican or Democratic thing. It’s a power thing. Ordinary citizens don’t have the political muscle to write tax laws. We think of BizVizz as a tool to give people like you and me some power to point out how the system is unfair, and influence on the law-making process is something that money buys in America, which ultimately corrupts our democracy. Continue reading →

Anna Deavere Smith on the PBS Arts Summer Festival

Posted on June 29, 2012 by ITVS Staff

Actor Anna Deaveare Smith discusses her role as host of the PBS Arts Summer Festival with BTB. The interview was conducted last January at the TCA Press Tour in Los Angeles, where the actor was performing her one-woman-show Let Me Down Easy.

The PBS Arts Summer Festival expands the scope and diversity of the arts on television, with a multi-part weekly series and new original online content that takes viewers across the country and around the world. The Summer Festival kicks off tonight with the ITVS funded documentary Mariachi High, which captures a year in the life of top-ranked members of Zapata High School’s championship mariachi ensemble on the Rio Grande in South Texas.

To learn more about the PBS Arts Summer Festival and see the full broadcast schedule, please click here.

Filmmaker Isaac Solotaroff on Wham! Bam! Islam!

Posted on October 19, 2011 by ITVS Staff

Director Isaac Solotaroff talks about using Wham! Bam! Islam! and the recently released Hunt For the Noor Stone Interactive game to promote cultural understanding.

The interactive game, Hunt for the Noor Stone, just launched and features an in-depth, standards-aligned study guide for middle school students. The inspiration for the game came from THE 99, the comic book series featured in Solotaroff’s documentary Wham! Bam! Islam! which aired on Independent Lens last week, and is currently streaming for free on PBS.org. BTB caught up with Soloratoff last week to ask — why a game, and why now?

Who are you and what do you do?
My name is Isaac Solotaroff and on my good days I get to work on documentaries and on my bad days I try to figure out how to raise money to make documentaries.
Continue reading →

FOCUS ON: Kim Snyder, Director of Welcome to Shelbyville

Posted on May 28, 2011 by ITVS Staff

By Melody Morgan

FOCUS ON is a regular interview series profiling independent filmmakers and their projects. Up this week is Kim Snyder, whose documentary Welcome to Shelbyville, aired last week on Independent Lens. The documentary is currently streaming free online at PBS.org.

Why did you originally want to become a filmmaker and has that reason changed?

I love film. I’ve always enjoyed storytelling and I felt a compelling drive to express myself in this format. My entire family was in the arts, and my father is an artist, which also greatly informed me. With documentary, I’ve observed and experienced the power of the genre to ignite social change, and motivate people to participate in civic dialogue — and that is very rewarding for me.
Continue reading →