Airdate: China’s Artful Dissident

ABC screens China’s Artful Dissident, a documentary on the 30th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre.

This is an Identity Films production made with the support of Film Victoria.

On the 30th anniversary of the June 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre, China’s Artful Dissident shadows a Chinese political artist in exile as the artist clandestinely protests China’s abuse of human rights and its cover-up of the horrific slaughter of innocent students in 1989.

Inspired by Tank Man – the lone protestor who stared down a convoy of Red Army tanks in Tiananmen – the artist travels the globe meeting survivors and fellow dissidents who share powerful first-hand testimonies.

Like Banksy, the artist remains incognito, but unlike Banksy his life and that of his family are at stake, as the Chinese authorities – desperate to prevent his political art breaching their Great Firewall –close in on his identity.

As the global balance of power shifts from America to China in the 21st Century, China’s Artful Dissident shines a timely spotlight on Beijing’s continued whitewashing of the Tiananmen massacre and subsequent human rights abuses.

9:30pm Tuesday on ABC.