Sky Ladder: The Art of Cai Guo-Qiang

[geraldc]

Not strictly a Chinese movie, but one that has a Chinese subject, and fair bit of Chinese dialogue.

 

Went to see the documentary as part of the London Film Festival. He's an artist that few will have heard of, but everyone has seen his work. You know the firework footprints at the Beijing Olympics? Well that was his work.

 

A very interesting documentary, that will be available on Netflix from Friday. In the doc, the artist himself speaks in Mandarin, Hokkien and Japanese, and his words are sub titled in English, so it's a nice change to not have Chinese subs to read or over dubbing.

 

Cai Guo Qiang was at the screening, and seemed a very honest and heartfelt artist. The weaker among you may tear up at some of the more emotional bits of the film. I merely got a speck of dust in my eye.

 

The producer of the film was also there, Wendi Murdoch. She and Cai Quo Qiang got to know each other as they're neighbours in New York, so he's definitely not a struggling artist anymore, but he has certainly seen hardship and troubles in his life.

 

He's an artist who still tries to work within the system, and change things from within, but does suffer from govt interference. As soon as hear a Beijing accent, you can get ready to boo.

He's definitely not a struggling artist anymore

[vellocet]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/olympics/2534499/Beijing-Olympic-2008-opening-ceremony-giant-firework-footprints-faked.html

 

 

As the ceremony got under way with a dramatic, drummed countdown, viewers watching at home and on giant screens inside the Bird's Nest National Stadium watched as a series of giant footprints outlined in fireworks processed gloriously above the city from Tiananmen Square.

What they did not realise was that what they were watching was in fact computer graphics, meticulously created over a period of months and inserted into the coverage electronically at exactly the right moment.

[geraldc]

The article does still say that the fireworks did take place, and the footage from inside the stadium, ie the photo accompanying the article was real. The documentary explained that its all microprocessors built into the fireworks so that they explode at the correct moment to give the effect. 

[skylee]

I have been to his exhibitions and I liked many of his works.

[roddy]

Positive write up from the AVClub

http://www.avclub.com/review/dazzling-documentary-sky-ladder-chinese-artist-aim-243966

I think if you read the whole of the article on the footprint fireworks, it's stretching the definition of 'fake'. 'Ambitious to the point of being impossible to film reliably' sounds more like it. Fake would have been if the fireworks never went off. Though that said, I am of course still Team Yang Peiyi.