Dear Ai Wei Wei, 'Can I give you a hug?'
WHAT. A. DAY. The day Ai Wei Wei grabbed my phone to take a selfie, seconds after I approached him saying 'Can I give you a hug?' 😱
I decided that any attempt to sound interesting in front of this living icon would go in vain, so I just spoke my mind (or rather heart...) Ending up giving a hug to one of my intellectual, artistic & activist heroes and simply saying T H A N K Y O U (cause frankly that was all I had to say) 💙
Since the day Eleni told me we would see the Human Flow in live conversation with Ai Wei Wei, I kept saying 'I can't believe it' a trillion times.
So today we drove to this old Italian suburb of Sydney, and soon after the documentary started, I couldn't stop my tears from falling... Let me specify, these were not tears of pessimism, sadness, or pity; they were these heavyweight tears of guilt (as a Greek, European and human). Hence, the need to say 'thank you’ to Ai Wei Wei; cause HE was there when most of us were not. And this is irrelevant to the artistic value of his work per se.
I've said it before and say it again. There is one aspect of the refugee crisis that has hurt me the most, personally, as Emma. That happens to be identical to the silent dilemma, the opening scene of the Human Flow poses. I cannot possibly comprehend how the pristine seas of my home country, can be the setting of such horror and sorrow... While we (and most of the 'western world') associate the blue seas of the Mediterranean with holidays, hospitality, and 'good times’, I can't help but wonder, what memories would the word 'Greece' awake, to those fortunate to 'make the passage', those kids jumping out of the inflatable boats to an unhospitable, foreign world? These memories of fear, uncertainty, torment, disappointment, disrespect... This darkness and pain of feeling trapped, isolated, deprived of any sense of security.
Helene Pappas made the only question that fired a more philosophical dialogue on the occasion of creative expression: why the title human flow? Ai Wei Wei's reply: He sees refugees as 'flowing', the way natural elements, like the water & the wind, do. I found this concept of 'flowing' so symbolically powerful. First, we all 'flow', signaling that feeling secure today is no guarantee that we will not be the ones 'fleeing' tomorrow. Secondly, 'it all flows’ in the world, it can all change, it can all turn upside down in either direction. Hence, the tragedy of refugees is not destiny. It can be overturned, as time goes by. As all these Ulysees return or create their new Ithacas, and, we, the rest of the world, think as 'humans' and not 'political beings', sheltering and nurturing them, instead of 'temporarily accommodating' them.
Last year, I was attending a university committee lunch when I suggested organising a fundraising event (instead of making all these drinking socials) and giving the money to organisations in refugee-receiver countries. This girl halted my suggestion, with appalling apathy, saying 'We are not meant to be political here'. I took a very deep breath and with all calmness, I had left, I replied that this is exactly the problem, the refugee crisis is not a political issue, it's hu-ma-ni-ta-ri-an.
It's people like this, documentaries like the Human Flow should educate. Or, if you listen to the question I asked Ai Wei Wei today, people like all the fellow Greeks who were so concerned 'the port is dirty because of refugees' or 'we are losing out on business. Just as if they shout out all collective memories, songs, poems, narrations, and photos of centuries of Greek outbound migratory flows...
A quote I retained from the documentary, by John F. Kennedy (which very much applies to Australia too): “Every American who has ever lived, with the exception of one group, was either an immigrant himself or a descendant of immigrants.”
I have no idea what's the answer (apparently the regional quotas solution I support is too naive to turn into policy-making). But I know, it all starts by posing the right questions. Art & cinematography can help in that, especially when people like Ai Wei Wei make the whole world their 'studio'...and then bring the world (with is beauties & horrors) to us. 🌏