About The Film
Occupy Love will be a moving, transformative feature documentary that asks the question: how are the economic and ecological crises we are facing today a great love story?
A profound shift is taking place all over the world. Humanity is waking up to the fact that the current system that dominates the planet is failing to provide us with health, happiness or meaning. The dominant paradigm is based on separation, as exemplified by the financial system, and the corporate emphasis of profits before people.
Our headlong rush towards infinite growth is destroying our communities, our ecology, and threatening our very existence. The climate crisis is hitting us with droughts, extreme weather, floods, sea level rise and more, yet corporate lobbyists block any attempts at mitigation. Unemployment is at an all time high, and the gap between the wealthiest 1% and the remaining 99% is growing alarmingly. People are losing their homes, and the quality of life for the many is plummeting, while the few are raking in absurd profits. Wall Street is making dangerous bets, greed is running rampant, and entire economies are collapsing. Governments have been bought by the corporations, and many of us had lost hope. Until now.
This crisis has become the catalyst for a profound transformation: millions of people are deciding that enough is enough - the time has come to create a new world, a world that works for all life. We have experienced an extraordinary year of change, from the Arab Spring, to the European Summer, and now, erupting into North America: the Occupy Movement.
This is a revolution rooted in compassion, direct democracy, and shared power, as opposed to the "power over" model of the corporate world view. The new story is one of Inter-dependence. Love is the movement. As the Occupy cry goes: "We are unstoppable. Another world is possible!"
We have been filming at Occupy Wall Street since the first day, and have filmed the historical General Strike at Occupy Oakland, and have filmed at Occupy Canada. Currently we are tracing the evolution of the movement in Europe. We will be exploring the solutions to the problems we are facing, and zeroing in on the "heart" of this global evolution.
The film will feature an incredible cast of visionaries, both the well known, and the everyday heroes who are emerging in this fledgling movement. So far we have interviewed: Charles Eisenstein, Marina Sitrin, Judy Rebick, The Yes Men, Angaanaq, Clayton Thomas Muller, Tom Goldtooth, Bill McKibben, Malik from Occupy the Hood, Rebecca Solnit, Drew Dellinger, Don Tapscott, Jeremy Rifkin, Asmaa Mahfouz, Penny Livingston Stark, Rob Hopkins, and more.
The video of Charles Eisenstein above gives you a good idea of the philosophy behind this film. More videos can be found at http://www.occupylove.org
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Our Story
I'm Velcrow Ripper, the director of OCCUPY LOVE. I've been making award winning documentaries for over twenty years. I consider myself a media activist, committed to making the world a better place through the power of cinema.
Our team includes co-producers Ian MacKenzie and Gregg Hill. We are bringing our hearts and minds together to create a film that can reflect and catalyze the heart of this global movement of movements. OCCUPY LOVE is the culmination of the Fierce Love Project. which began the award wining feature doc, Scared Sacred, about my journey to the Ground Zero's of the world, searching for stories of hope in the face of crisis, followed by the acclaimed Fierce Light: When Spirit Meets Action.
We are in love with this time of incredible possibility and hope, and are deeply committed to creating a film that can be of service.
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The Impact
OCCUPY LOVE is intended to both reflect and catalyze this global awakening to a world that works for all life, a world of economic and ecological justice. Anyone who has been following our blogs, our videos, and the previous films, will agree that this film will be of great service to the planet, and humanity.
We need to do everything we can to nurture this evolving movement, our ever evolving global society, and keep it moving always in the direction of love, in the direction of life. The film will be seen widely, in movie theatres, on television, on-line, and in grass roots community screenings around the world.
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What We Need & What You Get
We need to create a film that can compete theatrically, if it is to have a significant impact, and that means being technically high quality. We'll need a proper dolby digital 5.1 sound mix, a proper colour correction, as well as funds to keep us shooting for another few months.
We'll need hard drives, money to pay for an editor, and money for marketing materials. While $50,000 might seem like a lot to those who aren't familiar with film budgets, it's actually very little. We'll use this money very sparingly and not a drop will be wasted.
Things are happening fast, and we want to get this film out fast. The amount we are asking for is actually much less than we really need. Double that would still be a tight squeeze - so please give what you can!
Many of you have already kicked into the initial start up phase of this project, under the title Evolve Love, and all the rewards will be moving over to this project, and will still be delivered.
Why Support This Film
By supporting this film, you are becoming a community film producer. Crowdfunding is a beautiful reflection of the collective spirit of this film.
OCCUPY LOVE will become a great tool for anyone interested in helping to change the world.
We are so excited to put the amazing footage we have gathered together into a transformative cinematic experience. Help us make this happen!
To learn more, visit our website http://occupylove.org
