The runner-up for Time Magazine‘s 2011 “Person of the Year,” Chinese dissident Ai Weiwei was named by ArtReview as the most powerful artist in the world. Ai rose to international prominence after helping design the iconic Bird’s Nest Olympic Stadium — and then publicly denounced the 2008 Olympic Games as party propaganda, in large part for their treatment of migrant labor forces. Since then, often at great personal risk, he has continued his criticism of the Chinese government, especially regarding their lack of transparency in the aftermath of the massive earthquake in Sichuan Province which left in particular so many children dead, because of shoddy school construction. In director Alison Klayman’s Sundance Festival-minted documentary Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry, audiences get a glimpse of his human rights passion, and the limits of free speech in China. I recently had a chance to speak to Klayman about her debut feature, as well as Ai’s affinity for flipping the bird. The conversation is excerpted over at ShockYa, so click here for the read.