Wednesday 14th Nov. 8pm Human Flow (12) – 2017, USA, 140 mins
Director: Ai Weiwei
some subtitles
Discussion: Jill Lewis
Chinese artist Ai Weiwei travels the globe to make sense of the current refugee crisis in this sober, enlightening survey of a world in trouble.
Its subject matter may be overwhelmingly bleak, but its call for unity is profoundly invigorating. The message, once we accept that the refugee lifestyle is no longer a temporary phase but a permanent state of being, undoubtedly is that only when we learn to coexist within the shared resources of the planet do we have any hope for surviving as a species.
Filmed over the span of a year, Human Flow was shot by 25 film crews in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, France, Greece, Germany, Hungary, Iraq, Israel, Italy, Jordan, Kenya, Lebanon, Macedonia, Malaysia, Mexico, Pakistan, Palestine, Serbia, Switzerland, Syria, Thailand, and Turkey.
Ai Weiwei – himself the product of internal displacement with his poet father during the cultural revoloution – artfully captures the massive and shocking breadth of the global migration crisis in this epic film, which portrays the plight of today’s 65 million forcibly displaced individuals (the highest number ever) forced out of their homes by war, famine and climate change on long, treacherous journeys in search of new lives.
He also offers various quotes, many from poets, that comment indirectly on the footage – though the most pointed comes from JFK, who stated that “every American who ever lived, with the exception of one group, was either an immigrant himself or a descendent of immigrants.” Migration is portrayed here not as a fanciful desire but a human right.
BOOKING: click on link to Totnes Cinema
https://totnescinema.co.uk/wordpress/event/human-flow-12a-transition-town-film-festival-screening/
or visit 27a High StTotnes TQ9 5NP
