Sep 05, 2014 THE SAND STORM (沙尘暴)
I’ve become quite the Ai Wei Wei fan over the last couple of years, having fortunately been exposed to a lot of the “dissident” artist’s work during my time here at Imprint. If I’m totally honest, I think his rebellious/punk-rock attitude appeals to me at least as much as his thought-provoking artwork does. He evokes something of a modern-day Socrates, an enigmatic figure constantly reminding society of its ethical shortcomings, even if no one wants to hear it. If you have a spare 10 minutes at some point today, perhaps you’d enjoy his latest project, a “low-fi sci-fi” short called THE SAND STORM which premiered at the 2014 Telluride Film Festival recently. Initially launched as a Kickstarter project from Jason Wishnow (the filmmaker behind the Peabody Award winning TEDTalks video series), the short has been described as, “one of the most successful short films in Kickstarter history.” In an interesting and thoroughly confusing twist, back in April, Ai Wei Wei sent Jason Wishnow a letter denouncing the usage of his name & image in said Kickstarter project. In spite of the controversy, the short is out, gaining buzz, and earned the coveted Vimeo Staff Pick status in the process. Being something of a sci-fi fan myself, I’m quite impressed with both the cinematography and the production quality.