Ai Weiwei: A Documentary Filmmaker

Did you know that Ai Weiwei is a celebrated documentary filmmaker as well as an artist?

Across his award-winning films, he turns the camera towards the defining issues of our time: mass displacement, state violence, censorship and the resilience of people who refuse to be silenced.

Documentary became central to his work while living in New York during the 80s, where his photographs of police brutality during a protest were used as evidence in court.

Returning to China in the 90s, he created a vast visual archive of everyday life.

Later using film to expose corruption and challenge state control, Ai has become a prolific documentary filmmaker.

Human Flow offers a heartbreaking exploration of the refugee crisis. Cockroach captures the Hong Kong protest. Coronation documents the military lockdown in Wuhan during the Covid-19 pandemic while Vivos examines the tragic mass kidnapping of 43 students in Mexico.

His films are urgent, global, and shocking – threads that run through Ai's work.

In summer 2026, nine of his films are screened at Aviva Studios over three days.

Find out more at the link in our bio.