Beijing Swings

The film they tried to ban! Waldemar Januszczak’s controversial investigation of new art in China reveals a very different Beijing art world to the one that the Chinese authorities seek to present to the world. Shot secretly, with hidden cameras, in the build up to the Beijing Olympics, this remarkably frank account of new Chinese art reveals a fractured society obsessed with death and decay, and fighting fiercely for the right to public self-expression.
 
When Beijing Swings was aired on Channel 4, questions were asked about it in the House of Commons and the Chinese authorities banned its makers from re-entering China.