Filmmaker Kevin Macdonald's “Sky Ladder: The Art of Cai
Guo-Qiang” premiered at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival and received rave
reviews for offering an interesting insight into the world of the Chinese
conceptual artist who is best known for his use of gunpowder and fireworks to create
spectacularly visual artworks deeply anchored in Chinese traditions.
The documentary will now be launched on Netflix on October 14 and will also open theatrically in New York and Los Angeles.
Partly biographic, the film chronicles Cai’s early
childhood during the Cultural Revolution then his move to New York in 1995 and subsequent
rise to fame with his unusual work, while also looking into his artistic
processes and showcasing how he engineers some of his works, in particular his
2015 "Sky Ladder," a 1,650-foot-tall fiery ladder that he finally managed
to pull off in his hometown of Quanzhou after a number of failed attempts over
more than a decade.
