Not all films that open in the Summer are biff-boom-pow blockbusters.  Some tiptoe up to you and catch you by surprise.  Two films that I’m sure will do just that this Summer are Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry, about the Chinese artist and political activist, and How To Survive A Plague, a film about AIDS survival and activism.

The trailers have hit the wonderful world of the interwebs; read on for more info on both films!

First up, the film Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry.  The story of a brilliant artist/political dissident that has paid the price for his beliefs and still comes out swingin’.  Wanna know who designed the gorgeous stadium for China’s 2008 Olyimpics?  That’s him.  He also later denounced the spectacle as party propaganda.  The man has guts, no question.  But how far is too far for your ideals?  Is there such a thing?

From the press release:

Named by ArtReview as the most powerful artist in the world, Ai Weiwei is China’s most celebrated contemporary artist, and its most outspoken domestic critic…. First-time director Alison Klayman gained unprecedented access to the charismatic artist, as well as his family and others close to him, while working as a journalist in Beijing. In the years she filmed, government authorities shut down Ai’s blog, beat him up, bulldozed his newly built studio, and held him in secret detention-while Time magazine named him a runner-up for 2011’s Person of the Year. Her compelling documentary portrait is the inside story of a passionate dissident for the digital age who inspires global audiences and blurs the boundaries of art and politics.

Sounds like an amazing film, and perhaps the perfect thing to see this year with the coming of the 2012 Olympics.  Check out the trailer at apple.com, and visit the film’s Web site for more information.

Next it’s time to look at AIDS activism and the struggle for in How to Survive a Plague.  It’s the story of ACT UP, a group of individuals who, in the early years of HIV/AIDS, decided they were going to try to do something about their “death sentence”.   With their chants of “The Whole World Is Watching” and “Silence = Death” posters, Act Up helped bring AIDS into the spotlight.  No, there’s no cure — yet — but there is a way to live with HIV/AIDS.  But this documentary shows that not so long ago that was a pipe dream that had to be fought for.

From the press release:

In the dark days of 1987, the country was six years into the AIDS epidemic, a crisis that was still largely being ignored both by government officials and health organizations—until the sudden emergence of the activist group ACT UP in Greenwich Village, largely made up of HIV-positive participants who refused to die without a fight. Emboldened by the power of rebellion, they took on the challenges that public officials had ignored, raising awareness of the disease through a series of dramatic protests. More remarkably, they became recognized experts in virology, biology, and pharmaceutical chemistry. Their efforts would see them seize the reins of federal policy from the FDA and NIH, force the AIDS conversation into the 1992 presidential election, and guide the way to the discovery of effective AIDS drugs that stopped an HIV diagnosis from being an automatic death sentence—and allowed them to live long lives…. A handbook for all activists who want to make change, HOW TO SURVIVE A PLAGUE captures both the joy and terror of those days, and the epic day-by-day battles that finally made AIDS survival possible.

A documentary sure to shake, rattle and get a reaction from viewers.  Just the trailer to watch before this weekend’s Baltimore Pride Parade, amirite?   Watch the trailer at apple.com, and learn more about the film at the film’s Web site.

Both of these films are critical darlings, and both trailers had me riveted.  Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry opens in DC (Landmark E Street and Bethesda Row) on July 27th, and How to Survive a Plague opens in DC this September.  Here’s hoping they hit Baltimore too.