Occupy Cinema: A guerilla film movement gone to the streets

Ethereal projection onto an Occupy Cinema banner at an Occupy Wall Street demonstration, taken by Timothy Krause, Nov. 17, 2011

Occupy Cinema: An open collective harnessing the moving image to aid the worldwide occupation movement.”

Inspired by the Occupy movement, Occupy Cinema is getting in on the game by taking the beauty and power of moving pictures to the streets by projecting on any surface they can find, from buildings, to abandoned property, to statues. Most recently on December 6, they found themselves in the heart of New York City’s Wall Street with a projection and performance program at Wall Street’s historic icon, the Charging Bull. They even released a viral teaser video promoting the event, which got picked up by blogs a’ plenty, including Indiewire and Huffington Post:

Occupy Cinema at Charging Bull // more to come from Occupy Cinema on Vimeo.

But Occupy Cinema’s movement doesn’t stop at public, guerilla-style performance and protest — on January 7 & 8, they’re partnering with NYC’s Anthology Film Archives to screen films related to the International Occupy Movement, including Peter Whitehead’s The Fall. Folks who attend these events will also see the full footage taken from the Charging Bull event and Travis Wilkerson’s An Injury to One. Visit Occupy Cinema’s blog page for full details on past and future events.

We’ll never know how long the Occupy movement will last, or its impact. But the fact that it has inspired filmmakers, performers, and projection artists to get more cinema to the masses is an incredible thing in itself. We’ll definitely be keeping up with Occupy Cinema, most especially their NYC happenings, for as long as the movement will allow. Occupy Cinema, indeed!

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Published by Lowell Film Collaborative

The Lowell Film Collaborative is a grassroots initiative in Lowell, MA, whose mission is to bring more cinematic awareness to the community.

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