Occupy: The Movies

Watch the trailer for "Occupy: The Movie"

Read an interview with director Corey Ogilve.

"Currently, Occupy is a model of how to relate to each other in a group setting to get something done. It has no park or physical space, but rather it is a social space people can enter, and leave, at their own will. I am very encouraged to see Occupy applying this model to doing humanitarian work at Hurricane Sandy, as well as many home foreclosure defenses. This is Occupy’s greatest strength: No one owns it, or rather, anyone can own it, they just have to show up and be part of it." -Ogilve


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“99%: The Occupy Wall Street Collaborative Film,” will have its premiere at the Sundance Film Festival next Sunday. It is one of three films at this year’s festival, along with the Arab Spring documentary “The Square" and the Tea Party documentary “Citizen Koch,” that are racing to catch up with rapidly evolving social movements.

The Occupy Wall Street film is the most experimental, as Ms. Ewell and Mr. Aites tried to mirror the consensus-building, nonhierarchical democracy of that movement. The title cards announce, “The film you’re about to see was made collaboratively by more than 100 filmmakers and newcomers across the United States.” The unusual credits read, “A film founded by Audrey Ewell and Aaron Aites,” and go on to list two other directors, Lucian Read and Nina Krstic, and five co-directors: Katie Teague, Peter Leeman, Aric Gutnick, Abby Martin, and Doree Simon.

“They actually tried to cut a film that resembled the process of the movement itself,” said John Cooper, director of the Sundance Film Festival.

they focused on reflecting the diversity of the movement. “The biggest way we thought we were mirroring the movement was actually not so much about the consensus process,” Ms. Ewell added. “It was about the idea that people from all walks of life all over the country would have a voice in the final film.”

It’s no accident that the tension between democratic access and goal-oriented expertise becomes a theme in the film itself, as people argue that Occupy Wall Street’s horizontal structure prevents it from making a greater practical impact.

“They need a production manager,” Ms. Ewell said, “to get that thing whipped into shape.”

Mr. Aites said, shrugging: “I don’t know. They did what they did.”

Ms. Ewell replied, nodding in agreement: “I know, I know. I’m imposing other values on them — and that’s what we try not to do too much of.”

(New York Times: "The Messy Work of Organizing Disorganizations")