Watch: Human Flow

Everyone should watch Human Flow, a film directed by Chinese artist Ai Weiwei on human migrations happening today all over the world. The film follows the journey of people from the Middle East, Africa and Latin America, as they venture towards safer, more promising futures.

The current refugee crisis has been widely discussed and written about. However, the film provides a visual perspective of the second largest migration since World War II, a truly raw and impacting telling of one of the worst forms of cruelty set upon human beings.

Ai Weiwei has always been an artist dedicated to activism. In 2016, he wrapped the columns of the Berlin Konzerthaus with 14,000 life vests, in homage to the refugees that land in the island of Lesvos, Greece every day. Until now, more than 65 million people around the world have been displaced from their homes, increasingly making the world smaller.

Throughout the film, the artist travels to the different regions undergoing political and economic instability, forcing citizens to flee their countries. Ai Weiwei combines aesthetically impacting images of these countries with scenes that force viewers to face the harsh reality of life in refugee camps, the loss of family members and the uncertainty of a future left in the hands of strangers. His use of portraits of refugees and ancient Arabic proverbs humanize a situation where we often consider individuals as no more than a number.

When I left the theater, I overheard people criticizing Ai Weiwei's decision to insert himself in a small number of scenes within the two hour and thirty minute movie. It made me think of why the artist would choose to do that. He didn't set himself as the star of the film, it is clear that he is acting as our guide to understand what these people are going through. His interactions with the subjects take me back to the entire problematic behind the artistic approach to human suffering, usually brought up when speaking of documentary photography and film.

There's always the question of how much distance should the artist keep from a subject to avoid the dehumanization of this subject for mere artistic purposes. Ai Weiwei is not only presenting to us the reality of human migration, he is also showing audiences how he works by literally being filmed filming. Human Flow is also a demonstration of how the artist approaches and interacts with his subjects, well aware that they are experiencing severely painful and enduring extremely challenging living conditions. His insertion in the film is a way of documenting the process of documenting. His presence allows us not to see refugees only as victims, but as willing and capable people, a universe within each and every one of them, an entire story to tell.

By the end of the film, the audience leaves with the idea that perhaps to an individual level we may not be able to stop what is causing this massive human flow. However, we must accept that the world is rapidly becoming smaller, and that we are just going to have to learn to live peacefully with each other.

If you have the chance to catch Human Flow in theaters, I highly, highly, highly recommend it!

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