Sky Ladder: The Art of Cai Guo-Qiang
Director: Kevin Macdonald
Year Released: 2016
Rating: 3.0
Celebrated Chinese artist Cai - best known for his work with fireworks (although he's also created amazing installations involving items from nature, life-like animals and vehicles) - works towards completing one of his pet projects (that he'd been working on for decades), a massive visual display called "Sky Ladder" that connects "the Earth to the universe." Macdonald does the traditional birth-to-now review of Cai's life (including his devotion to his family) and touches on his environmental themes ... as well as bringing up the controversial issue of his working for the (corrupt) Chinese government (and bending to their strict rules) and how that affects the quality of his art (Zhang Yimou's commentary is revealing): this could be paired with the Ai Weiwei documentaries with Ai being the 'bad dissident' to Cai's 'cooperative participant.' As far as "surpassing Picasso" is concerned ... he's not even close (but keep trying!).
