A film by Andrew Cohen / A-C Films
Switzerland, 2013

SUMMARY:
In 1978 Ma Desheng co-founded China’s radical Stars Art Group –a pioneering gang of artists, including the young Ai Weiwei, Wang Keping and Huang Rui– who fought for artistic freedom shortly after Mao died. During this brief period of hope in the late 1970’s known as the Beijing Spring, The Stars were the first group to renounce official Communist Party propaganda art in order to explore individual expression and modernism in their work.  Theirs was the first artwork that dared criticize Mao and the Party.  After their defiant, unofficial exhibition was forced down by the authorities, and their subsequent protest demonstration disbanded, a fierce crackdown on artistic freedom ensued.  Most members of the Stars Group fled China.  Thirty-five years later, Ma Desheng has not given up the struggle for artistic freedom.

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