Pre-Occupied

The Occupy movement is still going strong! After months of encampments, protests, signs and communal understanding, the activists at Zuccotti Park (and all over the place!) are still sitting in in the name of exposing unhappiness with the financial system. The movement, as amorphous as it is, is slowly taking on an underrepresented group of people's voice and, despite what seems like a lack of media coverage and lack of demands/alternatives, they are still trying to bring to the world's attention that not everyone is content in an oligarchy! Filmmakers have slowly been filtering into the cause too, documenting the culture of the camp outs and voicing opinions in a broadcastable medium.


Martha Colburn has steadily been documenting the happenings on Wall Street (and even abroad) for awhile now. Her frenetic style captured on super 8 film and edited with complimentary music show tiny little fast paced slivers of what is happening out there on the streets. (above, Martha's first Occupy film)

Jem Cohen also took on Wall Street as a subject recently producing moving images in his signature slow, dreamy, unhinged style. His films, like many of his portraits, always seem to capture an essence, a deep emotional contemplation of a space or people, which I think is very important in understanding any subject on the other side of the camera. Jem's Occupy shorts capture a real sense of being there and what that means & stands for, a beautiful impression of change. (one of Jem's installments below)


This recent post by filmmaker Michael Galinsky (who I've met a few times and is always the nicest of fellows!) comments on how the Occupy movement gives voice to a group of marginalized people allowing for his epic film, Battle for Brooklyn (that follows a group of people trying to win the right to keep their homes despite the strong arming of corporate and government forces wanting to build a stadium where their homes once stood), to take on a whole new scope & audience as growing numbers of people voice their discontent. (trailer below)



And then their is the media coming out of the movement itself. As my pal Todd pointed out, the Occupy Livestream is an ongoing broadcast of the campaign and citizen journalism in general is on the rise too! Occupiers everywhere are constantly putting out what they see in digital form, showing the good (interviews with those Occupying) and the bad (police brutality) and taking it to the wide reaching platforms available to them. The more corporate and controlled the media is the more we should call upon ourselves to document the world around us, to become the media. Documentary filmmakers are not an elite class, they are a class that almost anyone can belong to nowadays and an important check and balance on society...so, Occupy, keep on broadcasting loudly and proudly what it is that you believe and never forget to articulate change! And also, how is the government policing internet videos that display the protests? Did you know this is happening? I thought it was a hoax but I myself was met with a "The Government has banned this video" message not too long ago and hoax or not, the fact that it is even a possibility makes me want to Occupy somewhere too! Have a Happy Revolutionary Holiday everyone!