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My essay on @aiww's documentary, Cockroach: "The best of times and the worst of times. Hong Kong has really lived a tale of two cities, of yellow umbrellas against black police batons, Guy Fawkes masks amid slick steel skyscrapers." https://bit.ly/2Xf6uPs
"To document everything is the least a citizen can do," @aiww said to me in an interview. The doc is "a record of this very historical, very meaningful, very impressive ideological fight. There are not so many fights like this." The work is a tribute to the people of Hong Kong.
I wanted to write about the documentary for several reasons: 1) it is a really good documentary so watch it! 2) the film struck me as historical evidence. Because Beijing is already rewriting the narrative via propaganda of what's happened in Hong Kong the same way for Tiananmen.
As I explain: "Beijing’s propaganda has already successfully turned [mainland Chinese] against Hong Kongers; they are being characterized as as ungrateful, chaotic and unpatriotic. Documentaries such as Cockroach act as evidence to contradict the Party’s revisionist history."
Also my piece gave a nod to the amazing work of the cinematographers on the ground in Hong Kong who filmed this incredible documentary: Raül Gallego Abellán, Li Dongxu, and Ma Yan. And thank you @TheTLS — it was my first time writing for them — my debut! https://bit.ly/2Xf6uPs
One more thing — @aiww's documentary on Hong Kong also sat down with some police officers — those on the other side. It was interesting, insightful, and makes this an honest exploration of the movement. This was not an easy film to watch nor an easy thing to reflect and write on.
Also for anyone skeptical of the Hong Kong documentary Cockroach because they disagree with Ai Weiwei's recent tweets on the US elections, I'd just point out that no one on here is the summation of their tweets in their professional work we all know that. 
Watch it!
Watch it!
