ACT will host its Lyric kickoff on Tuesday March 27th, 2018 at 6:30p.m. with a screening of Ai Weiwei’s 2017 film, Human Flow, followed by a Q&A with a guest to be determined and moderated by Dr. Scott Diffrient.
Tickets are $12, $3 of which will go to Rams for Refugees, a Colorado State University student organization devoted to social justice and human rights for refugees worldwide. In partnership with the Enough Project, The United Nations Association of Northern Colorado, and CSU, the organization raised around $5,000 for Doctors without borders. Rams for Refugees, which is committed to having an open dialogue with the CSU and Fort Collins communities about issues surrounding refugees, will partner with ACT for this event.
The event will take place at the new Lyric, located on the North side of Fort Collins. The Lyric moved from its long time location in Old Town Fort Collins to a larger space on November 14th, 2017, when the community and The Lyric joined the Guerrilla Fanfare marching band in a walk from Old Town Square to the new Lyric. The Lyric is a local cinema café committed to community arts and creative endeavors. Not only does The Lyric show independent films and Hollywood productions alike, it also hosts community events for the arts, and special screenings like Weekend ‘Toons and Bad Movie Nite. The Lyric will be partnering with the ACT festival this spring, beginning with the screening of Human Flow.
Human Flow is an Ai Weiwei documentary about the worldwide refugee crisis that premiered at the Telluride Film Festival in September 2017 and was featured at the Denver Film Festival in November 2017. The film documents the experiences of refugees in 23 countries across the globe over the course of one year. 65 million people worldwide have been displaced in order to escape war, famine, and even climate change. Human Flow tells of the efforts of refugees to get to safety through grueling conditions across oceans and guarded borders, among many other challenges. The film is a demonstration of the strength of the human resolve and the struggle to find meaning in a life filled with unpredictability. It is extremely timely, as we are currently experiencing the largest refugee crisis since World War II and refugee rights are regularly discussed across the United States and the world. Human Flow is a call for humanity, a call for people across the globe to stop turning a blind eye to the suffering of refugees worldwide.
Director Ai Weiwei, who himself holds refugee status, is a world renowned artist, documentarian, and activist. The artist currently has an exhibit in downtown Denver, “A Year With Ai Weiwei: Circle of Animals/Zodiac Heads.” The exhibit opened in October 2017 and will remain in Civic Center Park until October 2018. The exhibit is a circle of 12 bronze animal heads of the Chinese Zodiac around the park. It is a reinterpretation of an exhibit that was featured at the famous fountain-clock of the Yuanming Yuan in Beijing, China. In addition to his documentary film work and eclectic artistic portfolio, Weiwei is also an activist, known for his critical stance on the Chinese government and his investigation into corruption of that government.
The screening of Human Flow will kick off the partnership between The Lyric and ACT, which will continue through this year’s festival. For more information, visit our event page and for tickets, visit The Lyric‘s ticketing site.
Photo: Still from Ai Weiwei’s Human Flow, 2017