Beijing Spring

At Beijing’s Democracy Wall in 1978, the “Stars”, a group of self- taught artists (including a young Ai Weiwei) challenged propaganda by showing provocative new art that championed free expression, often exposing the inhumanity of the Cultural Revolution. Beijing Spring recounts the experiences of artists and activists who flourished in this brief period of reform, before crackdowns saw many imprisoned or exiled. Recording it all was a daring young filmmaker, Chi Xiaoning, whose astonishing, long-hidden 16mm film footage is revealed here for the first time in 40 years.

‘There has been very little written about [this movement]. The Beijing Spring was erased. [But] there is so much joy in the story. The only rule they had was: Create what you want, how you want. [the artists in the Beijing Spring] are rock stars that never got their deal. It was reminiscent of what is happening in Hong Kong today. This is a story about underground film-making, radical art and fighting censorship. A modern-day David- and-Goliath story.’

Co-director Andy Cohen, from an interview with the Jerusalem Post.