Occupy: The Movie

[HyperRealist]

On September 17 2011, a worldwide social movement was born in New York City. This film documents who they are and what they protest.

About the Film
The Occupy movement took America by storm in the fall of 2011, and has since faced police violence, eviction, and failure. Misunderstood by the media and now without a park to occupy, it is gut check time for the most daring American social movement since the Civil Rights movement. Featuring interviews with key organizers and intellectuals of the movement, we discover the biggest threat to occupy, is in fact, occupy. Can they self-overcome and change the most powerful political-economic structure in human history? Featuring interviews with Noam Chomsky, Kalle Lasn, Chris Hedges, Cornel West, Andy Bichlbaum, Sandy Nurse, Liz Evans, Jesse LaGreca, George Machado, Tim Pool, Vlad Teichberg, Makh Aten, Priscilla Grim, Justin Wedes, Aaron Black, Bishop George Packard, Pete Dutro, Michael Premo, Jen Waller, Gideon Oliver, George Martinez, and more key figures from the Occupy Wall Street movement.

Why Support a Film About Occupy Wall Street?
Occupy Wall Street is one of the most misunderstood social movements in American history. Both the left and right wing media machines have distorted the truth on the ground. As soon as we saw this happening we committed every day of our lives to making a definitive and balanced film that documents who the Occupiers are and what they protest. We feel no one has done this yet to a satisfactory level and so you have 'Occupy The Movie'.

With an age of austerity coming upon us, as we see in Greece, Spain, Portugal, and the Ryan-Budget, the world needs more films about social movements. On one level, we intend for this film to be a utility to future social movements, informing them of the successes and failures in Occupy. As Cornel West says in the film, 'the beautiful thing about Occupy is that they are self-critical, and thats all you can ask from human beings, is the willingness to change'. On another level, we wanted to show where Occupy went off course, by only using the words of the occupiers themselves to explain this. There is no left-wing narrator telling you what to think and how to feel, this is up to you.

Help Us Reach the Finish-line
We have invested over $75,000 and 3000 unpaid hours to get the film to where it is today. We have filmed 53 interviews, hundreds of hours of B-roll, and have finished our first pass at editing. The film has been privately critiqued by over 30 film professionals and test audience members, and is ready for the final steps.

We need $30,000 to reach the finish line. This will have the film completed by 2013 and ready for Theaters, TV, and VOD. You will get a DVD sent to you the day it goes on sale, along with any other perks you purchased. We have intentionally kept our costs as low as possible to reduce our need for exterior help, but now need your help to get the job done.

See Results in Months
Our edit has been accepted to an oscar-qualifying film festival, and we will announce in December when it is made public. So, you will see return on your money by mid-December, when we announce the beginning of our north american film festival line-up. If you can't make one of the festivals, soon after this our DVDs will be released and you'll be watching at home. This project is unique in that the majority of the work and spending is done, we are so close!

RISKS AND CHALLENGES
By journeying far and wide, shooting interviews, editing the film and putting music to picture, we thought that we'd overcome the greatest hurdles already; however, what lays before us now is a financial hurdle. As frugal as we've been with expenditures, we're now scraping the bottom of our pockets and unfortunately for us, film festivals, post-production houses, lawyers, insurers and couriers don't accept lint as currency.

There are costs that we must bear if we want this film to make the biggest splash possible. Sound design and colour correction are essential when creating a product that broadcasters will want to air. Film festivals need to screen this film in order to generate buzz and interest, so we must submit it to them. These all cost money, which we don't have.

Now that we have content to show for our work. We thought we would give the opportunity to the Kickstarter community to be a part of this film. If you can, support the film and vote for the ideas you believe in with your dollars.

95% of the work on the film has been completed. Our biggest risk is that we come all this way and the film never has the chance to reach its full potential. With your help it can. Contributing to the project and sharing the project with your network diminishes that risk.

$60 gets you a signed DVD & Blu-ray and a "Thank You" in the credits.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/...letion-funding

[EricJ]

Occupy Wall Street is one of the most misunderstood social movements in American history.

Just ask the people who were in it.

(Nobody really understood why everyone was gathering outside of Bank of America, so when BoA finally removed that $5 ATM fee they were threatening, a month into the protests, half the crowd in our town said "Oh, is that it, can we go home now? ")