What better way to celebrate Chinese New Year at Sundance than selecting 'CHINA HEAVYWEIGHT' as my first movie of the day. Evidently that old curmudgeon Chairman Mao banned boxing in China as he said it was the sport of capitalism and thus very bad. It wasn't until after Mohammed Ali visited China in 1979 as a goodwill ambassador that the sport was allowed, and then encouraged again.
This documentary film by Yung Chang, the award winning director of 'UP THE YANGTZE' follows some elementary school kids as they are selected to train at a local boxing school, also students who are about to take part in regional championships, and one of their coaches a retired boxer who feels he has one last big fight in him. All their journeys are fascinating especially when they and their families with their traditional small country village lives consider the impact that boxing could have in giving the young fighters a lifestyle their parents could never have ever imagined. As their all work towards their new goals, we find at the end that it is not always about winning.
It's an early lunch today so back to the Sundance Channel Lounge to have a lesson in How To Pitch A Movie.
First afternoon movie is 'NOBODY WALKS' (as in nobody walks in LA) and is a disappointing drama about Martine a 23 year old NY artist who flies into LA to meet with Peter a sound engineer who is going to help her finish her art movie on bugs for an upcoming Gallery Show. The essence of the whole movie is established in the very first scene when Martine is walking with her luggage in a car park at LAX when the attractive man she is with has her up pushed against the car and is undoing his trousers. She stops him there as evidently they have only just met on the plane. As the movie unfolds and seemingly every man wants to have sex with her, she suddenly stops being quite so reticent.
Martine is actually staying with Peter and his family in the pool house attached to their home as his mixing studio is on site too. But its not just her movie that ends up being mixed there, as despite Peter's seemingly happy marriage with Julie his attractive successful Therapist wife, he cannot wait to get into Martine's pants. So too does David his handsome young Assistant and when he gets lucky Peter gets really pissed. Meanwhile Julie's seemingly only patient who is good looking highly strung screenwriter wants to put the moves on her. As Viv (my 'Boss) summed it up so accurately, it just seemed that everyone walked around with continual hard-on's.
The movie made our viewing schedule as it was co-written by Lena Dunham who's filmmaking debut was the delightful 'Tiny Furniture' so it was a tad disappointing seeing her follow up be this tale of these self-obsessed irritating characters. When it comes to it at the end it was a case of nobody walks but everybody runs.
We sat through to the bitter end (or rather till I was bitter at the end) but we were rewarded by getting to next watch a stunning uplifting movie about the genius who is Ai Wei Wei the celebrated Chinese artist and political activist. Filmmaker Alison Klayman's debut feature documentary chronicled his life for 3 years starting with his role as a Consultant to Herzog the architects as they constructed the 'Birds Nest' Olympic Stadium, and then he immediately infuriated the Government when he became the first notable person to publicly denounce their policy of clearing swathes of the old city to make Beijing look pristine for the outside world for the duration of the Games.
He came to even greater prominence as an activist when he took upon himself to highlight the real depth of the tragedy caused by the Sichuan Earthquake in 2008 when shoddy school buildings collapsed killing all the students trapped inside. When the Government's propaganda machine clamped down on any information being circulated, Wei Wei 'twittered' and got a whole gang of volunteers' to come forward and they stealthily managed to gather all the names and details of every single school kid who lost their lives and he published the long list as a work of art on the first anniversary of the disaster.
This transposed into one of Wei Wei's most famous art installations when he plastered the whole front of the Haus der Kunst in Munich with 9000 school backpacks that spelt out in Chinese characters the message 'She lived happily in this world for seven years' a quote from one of the grieving parents. The name of that Exhibition was 'So Sorry' from which they took the title of this film.
The film also covered the installation of 'Sunflower Seeds' which used 100 million hand-painted porcelain seeds to ever the entire vast floor of the Tate Modern Turbine Hall in October 2010.
As a man, Ai Wei Wei comes across as a gentle giant : generous, articulate, funny, with endless compassion for the rights of his fellow countrymen. Despite his denials he is extraordinary brave and totally fearless even though he has almost died from an injury caused by an unprovoked beating from the Police. On the April 3rd 2011 the inevitable happened and he 'disappeared' and the Authorities denied knowing of his whereabouts or even if he was still alive. Both the political and art international communities protested loud and clear with influential voices as important as the US Secretary of State lobbying China, and then suddenly, without notice Wei Wei was released on Bail in June.
There is so much to admire about this man who's art and life enriches so many, and yet we all must fear that maybe next time he 'disappears' that he may never ever return. An unmissable movie.
He is totally miserable in Pattaya City until he discovers a gym, and the widow owner, and suddenly things are looking up. Only snag is how the hell is he going to tell his fierce controlling mother?
Usually Danish movies are always so bleak .... maybe it's something to do with all that cold weather.... but despite the icy glares of Dennis's mother, this one was really quite sweet and touching. And a nice way to finish a day.
P.S. Whenever I mention to people that I come to Sundance I'm always asked if we ever spot Robert Redford here. The answer is NO. But thinking more about it I've never ever seen him on TV the same time as Sir Elton and methinks that perhaps they are the one and same person. I mean check out these hairpieces, they are identical!
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