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Update #15: Exclusive Screening for Kickstarter Backers
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Posted on April 26
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Update #14: Sundance recap! On to Berlin!
Dear Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry supporters,
Happy Lunar New Year! 新年快乐! Fresh from our World Premiere screenings of Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival, the team is headed next to the Berlinale for the International Premiere!
At Sundance, the film screened to over 2,300 people in seven screenings and inspired many laughs, tears, two standing ovations, and a Special Jury Prize for Spirit of Defiance!
Kickstarters' Yancey Strickler used our film as a model during his Artist Services presentation at the festival. We proudly talk about our Kickstarter backers everywhere we go, and are so grateful for your support in taking on a project when it was still far away from the bright lights of Sundance.
Alison snaps a photo of the crowd during her acceptance speech, when she asked everyone to stick up their middle finger in solidarity for Ai Weiwei's playful and indomitable stand for freedom of expression!
- Carson Daly featured only six films from Sundance on his late-night show, Last Call with Carson Daly. We were thrilled to be included among them for his Spotlight on Sundance segment!
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Christiane Amanpour, NPR and Kenneth Turan, Wired, Epoch Times, Wall Street Journal, and the New York Times all gave the film their stamps of approval!
- David Poland of Movie City News conducted an in-depth interview with director Alison Klayman on DP/30. Watch it here!
- Christianity Today gave Never Sorry a glowing review, writing: "Film seems to be right mix of narrative, hype, & social angst to land itself an Oscar nomination next year."
- Our Outreach campaign drew attention from indieWIRE, who named our fortune cookies including Ai Weiwei's tweets, one of their "favorite examples of Sundance 2012 movie swag!" The NY Times blog also featured a photo of our life-size Ai Weiwei cut-out on Main Street, and OnEarth blog mentioned the film as having the Best Guerrilla Marketing.
- "Art-umentaries Rule!" Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry was also included as part of Sundance Film Festival's biggest trends by The Daily Beast.
None of this would have been possible without your support and dedication!
Love,
Never Sorry team
Update #13: Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry to premiere at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival!
爱未来! Love the future! The Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry team is proud to announce the film will make its World Premiere in January at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival! Just in time for Chinese New Year! We are indebted to all of our Kickstarter supporters for making this incredible three-year journey possible. As Weiwei has said, "If there is no freedom of speech, every single life has lived in vain." We hope this film will allow each person to find their own truth, to never retreat, and to strive for transparency. Our deepest thanks for your loyalty and support. Hope to see you in the mountains of Utah! Onward and upward! 加油!
To stay up-to-date on the film, please follow us on Twitter and Facebook!
Update #12: News from Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry: November 2011
Dear Kickstarter supporters,
Winter is upon us, and the latter half of 2011 has been a roller coaster ride for Ai Weiwei. Shortly after being named ArtReview magazine's most powerful person in the art world, he was served with a $2.4 million tax evasion charge by the Chinese government. Though fans and supporters contributed over half of the bill in solidarity, the government has rejected his claims for appeal. As the ongoing drama continues, Weiwei has said, "If a country resorts to silencing its people with sham laws, you win the battles, because you have power, but you’ve lost the war.” In an attempt to localize Weiwei's global cause and empower each person to keep his voice a loud part of the digital conversation, we have launched a Never Retreat. Retweet! campaign on Twitter and Facebook. We know his ability to freely express himself online is fragile, and never guaranteed, and so we encourage each and every one of you to get involved, be engaged, and speak out. Let us continue Ai Weiwei's example: @AWWNeverSorry. Never Retreat. Retweet!
Despite the uncertainty, Weiwei continues to be lauded in the art, human rights, and pop culture arena, recently awarded WSJ's Magazine's Art Innovator of the Year, the Bianca Jagger Award for Courage, and as one of GQ Magazine's Men of the Year in their upcoming December issue.
Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry is thisclose to completion and anticipating an early 2012 premiere. Thank you for your continued support and patience throughout this unpredictable journey!
More recent highlights:
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CNN recently spoke to director Alison Klayman about Weiwei’s fame in China, his mastery of the internet, and how since 2008, she has gone behind-the-scenes to tell a humanizing portrait of Ai Weiwei’s very public persona. “It’s really about how his life is his art. It’s about his activities, how he gives interviews very freely. He does not self-censor what he thinks.”
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Ai Weiwei made the cover of the November 21, 2011 edition of Newsweek Magazine. In it, he speaks out against his detention, being kept in isolation, and cut off from any interactions. “I really wished someone could beat me, because at least that’s human contact. Then you can see some anger. But to dismiss emotion, to be cut off from any reason, or anger, or fear, psychologically that’s very threatening.”
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On November 10, Twitter founder and Executive Chairman Jack Dorsey introduced a special presentation of Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry selects to the staff at Twitter’s headquarters in San Francisco. It was so surreal to be sharing an inside look at Weiwei’s use of their tool in China. Happy that Twitter staff was excited about the film, and about our “Never Retreat. Retweet!” campaign.
- How do you balance compelling storytelling with activism? On Thursday, Nov. 3, Alison Klayman joined a panel of acclaimed filmmakers to explore this and more as part of DOC NYC. Co-sponsored by Chicken & Egg, read their post-panel thoughts here!
- On October 19, Alison Klayman gave a special presentation on Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry at PopTech 2011: The World Rebalancing. In an interview on the Poptech blog, she shared the challenges of “acting in Weiwei’s shoes” and the evolution of the film’s narrative. “How do I convey to people who might not be familiar with the subtleties of how things work in China, what is subversive, what is dangerous? How do you show somebody at a computer and make it feel like — this is big, you know? Like he’s doing something intense.”
- Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry was one of eight films participating in The Good Pitch Europe on Oct. 25. It's a one-day live innovative forum where filmmakers pitch their films and outreach campaigns to experts from NGOs, foundations, brands and media.
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On stands now: In a bold new collaboration with W Magazine, Ai Weiwei remotely art directed a photo shoot in New York for the November art issue. The scenes spoke to his own confinement — a woman is captured, handcuffed and hooded by two menacing figures and taken to Rikers Island, where they watch her shower.
We continue to add oil (加油!) and look forward to keeping you posted on more updates about Weiwei and the film.
Never Retreat. Retweet!
Never Sorry team
Update #11: August 2011 Update from Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry
Dear Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry fans,
Thank you for your patience and continued support of the film! So much has happened since the last update. The team is hard at work in post-production, and the film is now anticipating a winter release date. By now, some of you have received the AWWNS t-shirts and pins. If your reward includes a DVD, you will receive your package once we are able to make those DVDs. We are sending the fulfillment rewards in stages, so don't panic if you haven't received yours in the mail yet. As you know, we are a small production doing our best, and we wouldn't have made it this far without your generous contributions.
So... what's new with the film and Weiwei?
- We are thrilled to announce that Alison Klayman was recently selected as one of Filmmaker Magazine's 25 New Faces of Independent Film! According to Editor-in-Chief Scott Macaulay, "Each person on this list is a story and the sum total of all these tales speaks to the ways these artists are reinventing the definition of what it means to be an independent filmmaker." Congratulations, Alison!
- Since opening up a Google+ account in late July, Weiwei has been slowly dipping his toes back into the social media waters. He has not lost his sense of humor describing himself as a "suspected pornography enthusiast and tax evader" on his Google+ profile and playfully tweeting: "Ten dumplings for lunch, regained three kilos!" to his followers. But he recently got serious and has been sharing more about his experience in detainment as well as urging support for fellow imprisoned activists, Wang Lihong and Ran Yunfei. In fact, only one day after his impassioned tweets, Chinese authorities released Ran Yunfei. For more updates, you can follow Weiwei on Twitter @aiww.
- The Never Sorry team is currently looking for a part-time Post-Production/Outreach intern in NYC from September through January. This position is ideal for someone who has worked in film administration and social media campaigns, is tech-savvy, and has a passion for social issue documentary. Candidate must be a self-starter, team player, and able to work three days a week from our downtown NYC office. If interested, please email cover letter and resume to info@aiweiweifilm.org.
As always, we can't thank you enough for your dedication to the film, and if you haven't already, please follow us on Twitter at @AWWNeverSorry and Facebook.
In solidarity!
Alison & the AWWNS team
P.S. Thanks to our Twitter fans for sending in photos of their AWWNS swag! Keep them coming! Again, our deepest gratitude.
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chris watts on August 10, 2011
he there from this little black duck,down here in australia.
i have received the tee shirt ,so thank you very much.
looking forward to the dvd.
keep up all your hard work and all the very best in the future
regards
chris watts -
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Funding Successful
This project successfully raised its funding goal on May 28, 2011.
Pledge $10 or more Pledge $10 or more
Receive a digital download of the film when it becomes available.
Pledge $35 or more Pledge $35 or more
Receive the DVD edition of the film when it becomes available.
Pledge $50 or more Pledge $50 or more
Receive an official AI WEIWEI: NEVER SORRY t-shirt and a digital download of the film when it becomes available. Includes international shipping.
Pledge $100 or more Pledge $100 or more
Receive a digital download of the film, an official AI WEIWEI: NEVER SORRY t-shirt and 10 snazzy, collectible NEVER SORRY buttons. Pictured at left and includes international shipping.
Pledge $200 or more Pledge $200 or more
Receive a limited edition DVD set of Ai Weiwei films, which includes AI WEIWEI: NEVER SORRY, AI WEIWEI: NEW YORK PHOTOGRAPHS and a limited edition run of a disc of NEVER SORRY deleted scenes bundled with an AI WEIWEI: NEVER SORRY t-shirt and collectible buttons.
Pledge $500 or more Pledge $500 or more
Receive the tee, buttons, download, the NEVER SORRY DVD and two 8 x10 limited edition photographs of Ai Weiwei (edition of 20) signed by director Alison Klayman. We'll bundle all of these goodies in a chic NEVER SORRY tote bag and you will also get a special 'thank you' in the film's credits because we're very, very grateful.
Pledge $1,000 or more Pledge $1,000 or more
Receive everything at the $500 level and two tickets to a private screening in New York or Los Angeles (transportation and lodging not included).
Pledge $2,500 or more Pledge $2,500 or more
Receive everything at the $1000 level and 2 unique original hand-made porcelain sunflower seeds (packaging by the artist) from Ai Weiwei's Sunflower Seeds (2010), at the Tate Modern.
Pledge $5,000 or more Pledge $5,000 or more
Receive everything from the $2500 level, plus the limited edition DVD set of Ai Weiwei films and two fine arts catalogs signed by Ai Weiwei as a thank you for being one of Alison's and Weiwei's biggest fans! You will also be listed in the credits as a member of the Producer's Circle and receive Producer Circle updates, mailings and bonus clips.
Project By
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Alison Klayman is a freelance journalist and documentary filmmaker. While living in China from 2006 to 2010, Klayman produced radio and television feature stories for NPR’s “All Things Considered”, AP Television, Voice of America, and “As it Happens” on CBC. Her work has also appeared on Current TV and The New Yorker website.
Klayman did her own sound recording and camerawork for AI WEIWEI: NEVER SORRY. She speaks Mandarin Chinese and graduated from Brown University in 2006.
Wanting to give you the benefit of the doubt and not to belabor the point, but a reminder that we were to receive the digital download when the film was completed, which it has been for a significant amount of time. As stated above, despite being successfully funded last year, and screening the completed film since earlier of this year, we have failed to receive an update of the fulfillment of the promised reward . Thus, the criticism is that you may be failing to make a good faith and active attempt to fulfill the promised rewards, and thereby potentially in violation of the Kickstarter’s Terms of Service.
This is ridiculous. The terms say "when it becomes available" not "when it becomes most commercially convenient for us to give you your digital download." This is not a for-profit theatrical release, but done to raise awareness.
You have disappointed me and I regret funding this project.
Very disappointing that we're be treating as customers instead of collaborators and the digital download is pushed off. Definitely doesn't feel honest or respectful.