Film puts face on migrant crisis

By Jill Lawless

Associated Press

VENICE, Italy

The United Nations says there are 65 million forcibly displaced people around the world – a number so huge it can be overwhelming to contemplate.

Artist Ai Weiwei wants to make viewers see both the scale of the crisis and the humanity of the migrants with his documentary “Human Flow,” premiering Friday at the Venice Film Festival.

The film, one of 21 competing for the festival’s Golden Lion prize, draws on a deep empathy with his subjects – one the artist came to through direct experience.

“It’s in my blood,” said Ai, who spent his childhood in a remote Chinese community after his poet father was exiled by the country’s Communist authorities.

“I was born when my father was a refugee,” the artist said. “I understood how low humanity can go from [when I was] very, very young, and how wrong things can go.”

Many other people feel detached and powerless when faced with images of migrants making perilous journeys by land and sea. Ai says that is due in part to news reports, which inform people but can also dull the senses.

The 60-year-old Ai is one of the world’s most successful artists. In his native China, he was alternately encouraged, tolerated and harassed, spending time in detention and being barred for years from leaving the country.

Now based in Berlin, Ai frequently draws on images of flight and exile for his work.

For “Human Flow,” Ai’s team of 200 crew members traveled to 23 countries and territories, visiting Syrian refugees in Jordan and Lebanon, Rohingya from Myanmar in Bangladesh, Afghan refugees returning home from exile in Pakistan and Mexicans on the border with the U.S.