“Who’s Afraid of Ai Weiwei?” Director Headed to Sundance

Congratulations to filmmaker Alison Klayman, whose full-length film on China’s most famous artist and provocateur, Ai Weiwei Never Sorry, will premiere at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival in Utah this January. The film is one of 16 in the festival’s U.S. documentary competition.

Klayman spent two years filming Ai and produced the FRONTLINE story Who’s Afraid of Ai Weiwei?, which aired in March shortly before he was detained by the Chinese authorities for three months. You can watch the full segment below.

Shortly after Ai’s release, I spoke with Klayman about her upcoming film:

In a way, his release gave me the freedom to return to the film I always intended to create: an in-depth portrait of a world-famous artist and an engaged citizen of China. No longer at the mercy of such dire current events, I am able to take a more timeless approach to the storytelling, and Weiwei is the most incredible character. I feel so lucky as a documentarian to have a rich and important subject, and that so many people around the world are waiting to see more of him.

You can follow filmmaker Alison Klayman on Twitter, or the Twitter account for Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry, her upcoming documentary.