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RESISTANCE CINEMA Presents “AMERICAN AUTUMN” an OCCUDOC Film, Written, Directed, and Produced by DENNIS TRAINOR JR., Associate Producer A.J. RUSSO, Executive Producer PEGGY KIMBLE,  (2012,  75 minutes)  

WHEN:  Sunday March 10, 2013  1:15 pm

WHERE: Community Church NY Gallery Room, 28 East 35th St. btwn Park & Madison Aves.

ADMISSION: Free, Donations solicited on behalf of ROLLING JUBILEE

 

On September 17, 2011 a demonstration expressing the pent-up anger against the hardships that continued to weigh down on millions of people as a result of the economic collapse of 2008 and the government’s anemic response,  took place at Bowling Green in lower Manhattan.  At a certain moment the demonstrators collected their placards and belongings and began to march up Broadway.  By the end of the afternoon an encampment had been established in a small park just a few blocks north of Wall St. There, in Zuccotti Park, a movement was born, it was called “Occupy Wall St.”. Ignored at first by all the major media outlets in the country, the hearty band of determined occupiers would go on to capture the imagination of the entire nation and eventually the world. 

 

“AMERICAN AUTUMN” tells the story of the Occupy movement and its roots through the voices of the people who made it happen. It is an energetic film, dense with action footage of demonstrations, clashes with police, musical performances embellished by all the pageantry of colorful placards, banners, costumes, and noise making.  In between we hear commentary from the many prominent activists who took part from Cornel West to Michael Moore to Medea Benjamin. The film also demonstrates how the concerns of the occupiers have grown and encompass an extremely wide range of issues from the economy, the war, healthcare, the environment, housing,  racism, civil liberties etc.. It is in short a worldview that attempts to forge a vision of human potential on the planet in the twenty-first century.

 

Along the way to forcing the country’s attention on the many issues and causes they champion, Occupy Wall St. has also cleverly injected several catch phrases into the common vocabulary, such as “We are the 99%” or “mike check” . But most of all is the way the word “occupy” itself has become a transferable prefix to accommodate any application. Indeed, the film is called an “Occudoc”.  The mailing list is called “occupy your inbox” and the hurricane Sandy relief effort is called “Occupy Sandy”. 

 

 

Occupy Wall St. has inspired and spawned many corollary initiatives. One of these is a noble project called ROLLING JUBILEE. Collections at this screening will go to this  “bailout of the people by the people”.  So we ask you to please be generous.

 

WHAT IS ROLLING JUBILEE? Rolling Jubilee is a Strike Debt project that buys debt for pennies on the dollar, but instead of collecting it, abolishes it. Together we can liberate debtors at random through a campaign of mutual support, good will, and collective refusal. Debt resistance is just the beginning. Join us as we imagine and create a new world based on the common good, not Wall Street profits.

To learn more, go to   http://rollingjubilee.org/