TRAILERS
Trailer for Ai Weiwei's Doc 'CoroNation' About China's Virus Response
by Alex Billington
August 20, 2020
Source: YouTube
Ai Weiwei is back at it! Alamo Drafthouse has debuted the first official trailer for CoroNation, the latest documentary film made by Chinese artist Ai Weiwei. While the rest of the world was slowly waking up to the spread of COVID-19, activist and artist Ai Weiwei directed a team to film inside the hospitals, homes, and quarantine sites of Wuhan, the first city hit in the global pandemic. Today, he surprised the world with the release of his new documentary CoroNation - available to watch NOW via Alamo's "Virtual Cinema". Ai Weiwei’s CoroNation is the first feature-length documentary about the coronavirus in Wuhan. As the first city hit in the global pandemic, the Chinese metropolis with a population of 11 million was placed under an unprecedented lockdown. Ai Weiwei paints a moving and revelatory portrait not just of China's response to the pandemic but also of ordinary people in Wuhan, showing how they personally cope with the disaster. A look at both how quickly and dominantly China responded to the coronavirus, but also a look at the crushing bureaucracy of that same machine, "its totalitarian decision-making, clear deception." A lot to cover in this.
Here's the first official trailer (+ poster) for Ai Weiwei's doc CoroNation, direct from YouTube:
The documentary showcases the incredible speed & power of China’s state machinery with its construction of massive coronavirus hospitals, deployment of roving sanitation-fogging robots, implementation of an exhaustive testing and contact-tracing protocol, and punctiliously engineered protective measures for health workers. But on the other side of the scale is the crushing bureaucracy of that same machine, its totalitarian decision-making, clear deception of ordinary citizens, the absence of civic communication, and perhaps, worst of all, a cold-eyed lack of empathy for those suffering loss and kept away from home. CoroNation is directed by acclaimed Chinese artist / filmmaker Ai Weiwei, of many doc films including Chang'an Boulevard, Beijing 2003, Disturbing the Peace, So Sorry, Stay Home, Human Flow, The Rest, and more. This hasn't premiered at any film festivals or elsewhere. CoroNation is already available to watch now for rent or purchase via Alamo On Demand Virtual Cinema. 100% of the Alamo Drafthouse's share of revenue from rentals and purchases will be donated to the Alamo Family Fund. Anyone want to watch this?
9 Comments
1
This might be good. Ai Weiwei is not only an artist, he's brave in depicting serious matters ... Chinese government blew it and society is paying the price ...
shiboleth on Aug 20, 2020
2
Ai is cool, but I don't trust anything around COVID19 yet.
DAVIDPD on Aug 21, 2020
3
The communist regime on Covid clean-up.
THE_RAW_ on Aug 24, 2020
5
Idk if welding up people in buildings would classify as a "much better job". Lol and honestly I'm not sure what country is doing "better" in all of this. In situations like this, retrospect is "could've, would've, should've".
THE_RAW_ on Aug 24, 2020
6
There are literally mountains of research on which countries are doing "better" based on countless studies, research, observational data, and all kinds of information. Not only infection rates, recovery rates, hospitalization rates, but also governmental response, and so on. And yes, based on this data, China is one of the best at containing the virus. And America is one of the worst, if not THE worst. Objectively, scientifically.
Alex Billington on Aug 24, 2020
7
Alex, can you provide me the links or point me in the direction of the data/research regarding China? I've honestly not been able to find anything to substantiate this claim. Also, it's hard for me to trust data from a government that actively suppresses democracy, removes whistleblowers from speaking out and commits atrocities against the Uighur Muslim community along with Tibet and Taiwan. And I'm not saying America handled it perfectly or did everything that was necessary (especially when it came to testing) but I honestly don't think we'll know the full story of the consequences and how it affects everything until years from now.
THE_RAW_ on Aug 24, 2020
8
Sure, lots of links for you. Just sounds like you have some extreme bias and hate. And it's also important to acknowledge that a government can be terrible, but they can still be good at responding to a public health crisis. Especially a country like China, which relies on (as propaganda) showing the rest of the world how much better they are at health, science, tech, and how they achieve this success by working together in solidarity as a nation, as citizens, as a community. Regardless of whether this is good or bad for society, it is still a better response to a deadly public health crisis than most nations - including America. By all means and measure (especially by DEATH) America has failed. Miserably. Here's a lot of links for you to read through (some show the good and some show the bad): https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-00741-x https://www.karger.com/Article/FullText/508448 https://verfassungsblog.de/chinas-response-to-the-coronavirus-pandemic-fighting-two-enemies/ https://www.lowyinstitute.org/publications/inside-china-coronavirus-response https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-democracy/chinas-response-to-covid-19-better-than-u-s-s-global-poll-finds-idUSKBN23M1LE https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jun/07/china-hails-coronavirus-response-as-global-death-toll-tops-400000 https://www.businessinsider.com/coronavirus-beijing-china-major-containment-other-countries-reopen-rising-cases-2020-6?r=DE&IR=T https://time.com/5850680/u-s-response-covid-19-worse-than-chinas/ That last one is good: "U.S. Response to COVID-19 is Worse than China’s. 100 Times Worse." Yep.
Alex Billington on Aug 25, 2020
9
Thanks for replying with the information and viewpoint. Although it's saddening that because I hold a difference of opinion you assume I'm full of "extreme bias and hate". It's hypocritical and it's weak rhetoric as the same could be said about you and your vitrol towards an opposing viewpoint. And thus lies the state of the world and why it is at odds. People can't have a conversation with opposite viewpoints or agree to disagree. It devolves into personal attacks and judgment. You think you're right in thinking China excelled in their handling of the virus, I'm not convinced by the data (that's been stated by your sources to not be 100% accurate or truthful). Regarding the death rate, most all of the sources you sent me stated something to the likes of : "Independent estimates put the nationwide death toll for Wuhan alone at between 22,000 and 30,000, for example, while the nationwide total has been estimated to be up to four times as high as that officially reported to the WHO." And therein lies the point: Data is based on fact/truths and if the issuer of said data is corrupt or withholding/altering information it cannot be taken as fact. The same can be said regarding the death count in the US. Which deaths are truly 100% Covid caused? There's been discrepancies in the reporting and therefore the data is not 100% accurate. Yes it sucks people died/are dying, yes things could've, should've, would've been handled differently, but here we are. Let's agree we can hope to learn from this going forward and prevent this pandemic from ever reoccurring.
THE_RAW_ on Aug 25, 2020
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