LET FURY HAVE THE HOUR: Antonino D'Ambrosio's feel-good doc about art, politics and the possibilities for change

How strange it is to see a documentary about subjects dear to one's heart and mind, and featuring a number of talking heads -- John Sayles! Eve Ensler! Van Jones! Richard D. Wolfe! -- whom you have admired for years -- and then find yourself arguing with the movie more and more often as it alternately crawls or barrels along. That was the state TrustMovies found himself in while watching the new film -- the first full-length from Antonino D'Ambrosio -- bearing a most interesting title, LET FURY HAVE THE HOUR.

Arguing with a movie is not necessarily a bad thing. At least you are engaged with it, which is pretty easy to be, so far as Mr. D'Ambrosio's film is concerned (the filmmaker is shown at left). Based on his book of the same name, that also featured the sub-title Joe Strummer, Punk, and The Movement That Shook The World, the documentary is mostly a series of talking heads (I counted some 38 participants listed in the end credits) who talk about art, music (many are themselves musicians), poetry, politics, economics and social change. At the film's beginning, the writer/director tells us this: At the dawn of the 1980s two leaders rose to power, speaking not to the people's aspirations but to their fears, not to their need to come together but their desire to pull apart. These two convinced millions that there was no alternative."

OK. So I'm thinking, who are these two? Milosevic (but he was the end of the 80s)? Maybe some crazy African dictator? Forget that. D'Ambrosio means Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher. The filmmaker, via his talking heads, then explains how and why these two reactionary conservatives spread their gospel and created the huge disparity between the very rich and the rest of us.

Then he seals the deal by telling us that the music and poetry and arts community rose up in a kind of "Creative Response" that was able to counteract the reactionary movement. Sort of. But did it? And if so, is it still working? To its credit, the movie does address that age-old question Can art makes any difference in the world? But its answer is pretty half-assed, I'm afraid. Yes, many of us love art, which can become a kind of salvation for our minds and spirit. But as to putting food on the table or solving the world's problems, this is more problematic.

There is a lot of intelligence on display here -- from everyone from from Sayles to Chuck D (above: rapper and founder of Public Enemy), Staceyann Chin (below) to Edwige Danticat. Ms Chin, toward the end of the film, explains it this way: The question isn't, Are we moving forward or backward? The questions is, Are we on the right side of history." Fair enough.

But when someone else opines, "I think we're ready for a leap," one can't help but wonder, where -- into the abyss? Everything here is about art of all kinds, with nary a mention of something that might greatly effect art (and all else) like climate change. Religion (and its discontents) is also nowhere to be seen or heard. And certain religions around the world, as practiced by their more fundamentalist believers, would gladly kill many of the artists shown in the film, particularly the women.

Change is inevitable, yes, as (I think) Ms Chin points out. But I would suggest that, while we're on the right side of history, unfortunately the wrong side -- corporations, the wealthy, the powerful -- is definitely winning. How do we change this, short of armed revolution (which we may not stand much chance of winning)? I don't know -- and the movie, feel-good inspiration-fest that it is, doesn't have a clue.

Worth seeing -- and arguing over -- Let Fury Have the Hour, a CAVU Pictures release and running 88 minutes, opens this Friday, December 14, in New York City at the Quad Cinema, and will open in other cities across the country come January. Click here to see currently scheduled cities and theaters.

Note: As a special treat, there will be 

Q&As with the filmmaker following 

the 7:25pm show on Friday 12/14, 

following the 5:15pm & 7:25pm shows 

on Saturday, 12/15 and following the 3:00pm & 

5:15pm shows on Sunday, 12/16.

AI WEIWEI: NEVER SORRY/Alison Klayman offers art as protest, provocation -- and art

You can't really miss Ai Weiwei: The artist, along with his work, his blog (access to which China seems to be currently blocking) and his insistent "dissidency," so far as his homeland of China is concerned, is at this point something like legendary. And yet how much do we really know about the guy? TrustMovies certainly didn't know a lot, outside of a few obvious facts, and so Alison Klayman's new documentary, AI WEIWEI: NEVER SORRY, was eye-opening, mind-expanding and especially anger-producing. (So much about modern China is, no? For that matter, so is much about the USA. For real anger-production, however, don't miss the upcoming doc You've Been Trumped. More about that one next month....)

To get some kind of grip on her subject. Ms Klayman, shown at right, goes all over the place (as does Mr. Ai, who is quite the world traveler). While she runs the risk of flailing a bit, she mostly avoids this by concentrating on, via verbiage and camerawork, what is most important to the artist: the use of his art for social good and the freedom of the people. Nearly all (perhaps every one) of the artwork exists -- in addition to the beauty of its conception and execution -- to send a message. This does not, of course, preclude the filmmaker's showing us an awful lot of shots of the artist's cat, below, who can actually open doors (but never closes them afterward). I suspect Ms Klayman is a cat person.

As we listen to Ai Weiwei during the course of this film, it becomes clear that he is both an artist and a critic rolled into one who possesses a keen sense of humor. As do his workmen, one of whom tells us, regarding those employed to put together the artist's work: "We're just hired assassins."

For a first-time filmmaker, Ms Klayman managed to gain surprising access to the artist (above and below) and his family. (How this family plays out is among the surprises of the movie.) Prior to making the film, she worked as a journalist in Beijing, and it is clear from the film itself that her journalism still serves her well. While providing the facts, such as they are, she allows us to spend time with the artist, see his art in various stages (design, construction and completion) and hear his musings, often inspired and always intelligent, on art and life.

From his Names Project for the victims of the Chinese earthquake -- especially the schoolchildren who lost their lives in the shoddy, sub-standard construction provided by the Chinese government --  to the Sunflower Seeds installation (above) that opened (and then just as quickly closed) at London's Tate Modern to the razing of his studio by the Chinese government; from his beating at the hands of police officers to his imprisonment and eventual release, Klayman packs in a lot of events and information. (The Iran-Contra hearings even figure into all this!)

We meet everyone from the artist's mom and younger brother to his wife and the mother of his only child (and no, these last two are not the same person), and various Chinese filmmakers and performance artists. Together, these people offer a wider perspective on our guy, a fellow who has taken the term artist/activist to new heights. "If you don't act," he tells us at one point, "the danger only becomes stronger."

From Sundance Selects, the 91-minute documentary -- after making numerous international festival appearances -- opens this Friday, July 27, in New York City, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Washington DC and Bethesda, MD. A further nationwide limited release will begin in August.