“Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry” Hits the Road
An Interview with Director Alison Klayman
Debut filmmaker Alison Klayman has been on a global tour with her documentary—Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry—a film about one of China’s most provocative artists and activists, which this week, was named one of fifteen films put on a short list to be considered for a nomination to compete for the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature. Although it has not been publicly screened in China, Never Sorry has attracted large audiences around the world and, like Ai Weiwei, has provoked discussion of the challenges of freedom of expression in China everywhere it goes.
For a filmmaker who, by her own admission, stumbled onto her subject, it has been quite a beginning. “The Sundance Film Festival in January of 2012 was really the first time I’ve ever been to a film festival,” Klayman says. “That was a great way to start.”
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Jonathan Landreth reported freelance from Beijing from 2004 to 2012 for The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, The China Economic Quarterly, The Los Angeles Times,...
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