Video information
"Tiangdi: The Art of Cai Guo-Qiang" is the first documentary film about Cai Guo-Qiang, one of the most important artists in the world today. It is not only an inspiring story of a Chinese artist who has become internationally influential, but also reflects the aspirations and spirit of the new generation of Chinese people. Directed by Oscar-winning filmmaker Kevin Macdonald, the film took two years to produce. It visits the artist's work sites, as well as his friends, family, collaborators, and experts, from New York to Buenos Aires, Shanghai, Beijing, Liuyang, and his hometown of Quanzhou. The documentary delves deeply into Cai Guo-Qiang's work and life, drawing from thousands of hours ofprecious historical footage to tell the story of how he embarked on his journey from Quanzhou in the 1980s, grew over three decades across five continents, and became a globally renowned pyrotechnic artist. The documentary also reveals the other side of his spectacular art—a fragile, struggling, and compromising inner world, as well as his deep and reserved patriotic feelings for his family, hometown, and the land of his country. The main thread of the documentary, "Tiangdi," is a 500-meter-high golden fireworks ladder that roars up from the ground, conversing with the vast universe. This is Cai Guo-Qiang's dream from his youth, looking up at the sky and reaching for the stars. Over the past two decades, he has tried and failed many times in different parts of the world, but he has never given up. In June 2015, at dawn, on the coast of Huiyi Island, a small fishing village in Quanzhou, with the help and witness of domestic technical experts and hundreds of local villagers, he made one final attempt to realize "Tiangdi" as a gift to his 100-year-old grandmother and his hometown...