Co-presented by A/J (Alternatives Journal) [1]
"Today I can't help feeling that the entire planet is on the verge of becoming ground zero," Velcrow Ripper declares in the opening minutes of his buck-up-a-movement doc Occupy Love. That serves as an early warning that the film's true subject is how Ripper feels about the world, the Occupy protests, and his hopes for the latter to salvage the former.
He's on firm, scarred ground when itemizing Occupy Wall Street's complaints about the damage that barely regulated capitalism has wrought upon glaciers, homeowners, and air-breathers. The photography is beautiful, the scenes of crowds and their signs arresting, and the interviews with individual protesters—in Tahrir Square, Zuccotti Park, teargassed Oakland, and even melting Greenland—are often inspiring. Naomi Klein turns up to add some intellectual rigor to all the revolution/evolution poetry. This will be a hit with protesters looking to amp themselves up with footage of a murmuration of starlings, here illustrating the power of shared consciousness.