At Brown I was a news anchor and jazz DJ at WBRU, produced a show on BSR, and made a short documentary about campus activism with the amazing Julia Liu '06. So even though I didn't study Chinese, maybe it isn't so random that I moved to China after graduation and now I'm making the first feature-length documentary about China's (in)famous artist and activist, Ai Weiwei. The film's called AI WEIWEI: NEVER SORRY.
It all began with a trip to China in 2006 with Julia, during which I decided not to leave. After adventures that included Ari Savitzky, Jackie Chan and Jet Li (I'm serious) I met Ai Weiwei in 2008. First I made a short film about him, and then I started filming more of his daily life. Eventually I got a bigger camera, an interested funder, and one day Ai Weiwei started introducing me to others saying "That's Alison, she's making a documentary about me. She's been following me for a long time". That's when I knew I was doing it, for real.
Below is the latest trailer for my film, which should come out in Fall 2011. If you're reading this before June, here is the link to our Kickstarter page if you want to support the film.
Just this week the PBS show Frontline aired an 18-minute story I produced and narrated for them about Ai Weiwei. Here's the first part of the piece "Who's Afraid of Ai Weiwei?" (PBS has the full version on their site):
Can't wait to see everybody at reunion, especially from Hope College, Gabe's House, Slater Hall, the Hearty Semites intramural bball team, WBRU, "Not Your Classroom", Art House and everyone else I love!
From my incessant recall of my time at Brown to my literal tears of joy when I return at graduation each year, it’s clear to everyone I know that I love Brown and new acquaintances will realize this within the first ten minutes of meeting.This place, these people, the shared traditions and experiences that came to define the adults we grew to be--there’s just nothing like it and no way to explain it to those who haven’t experienced it.I’m constantly impressed by the achievements of our classmates and consider myself lucky to be counted among you.I’m not going to pretend that I’ve done anything as noteworthy since graduation—no sweet videos to post, no websites to display, no non-profits to plug, had to even steal pictures of 06ers off of facebook profiles just for this post—but I have kept close ties to Bruno and have been reminded along the way how special a place it is.
Like your typical Brown student, I took a year off from school, which for me occurred before heading off to medschool.I spent the year off working as an admission officer for Brown, a job that had me traveling the country preaching my love of the school and reading high school files that were far better than my own (good thing I got in when I did).I moved to Cleveland for medschool at Case Western, and it was here in the Midwest where I realized just how liberal the four years on College Hill had made me.If we haven’t spoken since I started medschool, don’t worry because you haven’t missed much besides a lot of studying and research (and in fairness a good amount of fun and new friends).This year during my senioritis ennui, I am again reading Brown admission files, electronically as a remote admission officer. Being an employee means having a Brown email address which means being filled with the familiar dread at 1am when Morning Mail arrives in my inbox and I'm not close to being done with work for the night. However, reading files reminds me of why I love the school, and also how humbling it is that high schoolers’ resumes are more impressive than mine currently is.Hoping for a trend reversal in time for my still imaginary kids’ applications!
This winter, during my interview and decision process for residency, I had the opportunity to remember and recount just how special a place Brown is.First of all, Cleveland is not exactly a city that Brown graduates (or visiting friends…thanks guys…) flock to, so interviewing around the country had the special perk of bringing me to Brunonions in every city with open arms/beds/couches/floors.Around the same time, amazing alumni wedding festivities landed me with even more Bruno face time.My interviews themselves were also a time for more love, asBrown found its way into the answers for many of my interview questions, for example:what do you think of that makes you grin ear to ear?where were you the most challenged?what is the best decision you ever made?what is your favorite color?what is a type of North American bear?Perfect stock answer!In all seriousness, I think some interviewers were confused by whether I was applying to go back to college or be a resident.
Damnit. I literally just got the Brown Morning Mail as I'm writing this. There's an ARRRR St Patty's Day show tomorrow for those interested.
Which brings me to tomorrow: Match Day for the 06er medstudents who took another year along the way.It was a confusing decision process to create my match list and when I tried to explain what type of a community I was looking for to friends and family, I found myself invariably ending with “I just want to find some place like Brown!”Most people laughed at such a possibility for a surgical residency.What, people don’t go to FishCo during residency??(RIP FishCo. Please, a moment of silence…).Having found out Monday that I matched, the good news is I’ll be an orthopaedic surgeon somewhere next year.Much love and luck to all the other 06ers waiting to hear the good news later today on where they’re headed.Here’s to making it a place that we can be as proud of as we are of Brown.Because as a fellow alum wisely once said, it’s not about making good decisions, it’s about making your decisions good.
Wishing you all love and happiness, and a safe trip to Brown for reunion weekend!Hope to see you there.I’ll be skipping 1 and a half weddings to make it—and no, I don’t expect my non-Brunonian friends to understand why that could be such an easy decision for me.
