Participant Media and AC Films are teaming on documentary Human Flow from activist and filmmaker Ai Weiwei. The feature explores the global refugee crisis using footage and interviews shot in over 20 countries. Ai is producing with Chin-chin Yap and Heino Deckert. AC’s Andy Cohen and Jeff Skoll and Diane Weyermann of Participant are executive producing. The film is currently in post-production.
Filmed over one year, the doc was shot by 25 film crews in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, France, Greece, Germany, Hungary, Iraq, Israel, Mexico, Pakistan, Palestine, Serbia, Syria, Turkey and elsewhere. The doc portrays the plight of today’s 65 million individuals who have been forcibly displaced by war, famine and climate change on long, treacherous journeys in search of new lives.
Ai calls Human Flow a “personal journey, an attempt to understand the conditions of humanity in our days.” The film, he says, “is made with deep beliefs in the value of human rights. In this time of uncertainty, we need more tolerance, compassion and trust for each other since we all are one. Otherwise, humanity will face an even bigger crisis.”
The conceptual artist’s recent exhibitions include Laundromat at Jeffrey Deitch in New York, Ai Weiwei: Libero at Palazzo Strozzi in Florence, #SafePassage at Foam in Amsterdam, and Ai Weiwei at Cycladic at the Museum of Cycladic Arts in Athens. Ai, who was born in Beijing and now lives here in Berlin, has made 20 documentaries about social and political issues.
Human Flow fits in with Participant’s mandate to produce influential documentaries that empower social change. Most recently, the company premiered An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth To Power in Sundance.