Watch

Error message

Notice: Undefined index: base_url in include_once() (line 125 of /home3/occupyco/public_html/dev/sites/default/settings.php).

User menu

Search form

Occupy Holiday Survival Guide

Occupy Holiday Survival Guide
Fri, 4/13/2012
This article originally appeared on Goldenbear TV

Occupy Wall Street commenced last Fall just in time for the holiday season, and many occupiers prepared for their annual pilgrimages back home to face a barrage of questions from their families. This creative short anticipated this quandary, serving as a primer for broaching these issues over Thanksgiving turkey.

Actor Chris Keener plays an occupier, his mother, his father, his brother-in-law and his grandmother, Nutty Professor-style, and explains to each how they each have a horse in this race, whether they like it or not, because the deck is stacked in favor of the 1%.

"Occupy Wall Street: A Holiday Survival Guide was a collaboration between a number of DC-based filmmakers and creatives," writer Rob Shore said. "Though we all had different jobs, politics, and backgrounds, the best of what Occupy represented resonated deeply with us. We were frustrated as those who felt threatened by the movement began to spin its participants and goals as a bunch of police car-shitting hippies bent on destruction. As gainfully employed ("Occuployed," one might say) 20 and 30-somethings, our presence at Occupy DC was limited to evenings and weekends and we wanted to find a way to have a broader impact. We used our collective talents as filmmakers, actors, and communication experts to craft a strategic message template packaged in a short season-appropriate comedy that many people could identify with: going home for the holidays and arguing around the dinner table. The message template conforms to the best practices in the field of strategic communication: values prime the audience for what they are about to see and tell them "what this is about;" metaphors help to explain complex phenomena in ways that are more easily digestible; and solutions leave people with a sense that something specific and achievable can be done. We hope the video and its message can help breathe new life into the movement this spring."

3 WAYS TO SHOW YOUR SUPPORT

ONE-TIME DONATION

Just use the simple form below to make a single direct donation.

DONATE NOW

MONTHLY DONATION

Be a sustaining sponsor. Give a reacurring monthly donation at any level.

GET SOME MERCH!

Now you can wear your support too! From T-Shirts to tote bags.

SHOP TODAY

Sign Up

Article Tabs

prison reform, incarceration rates, private prisons, for-profit prisons, white supremacy, enslavement, climate justice, racial justice, Green New Deal

The year 2020 has caused many white people to realize we live in a racist system. The Green New Deal is about systemic change for all, and deconstructing racism must be front and central in this agenda.

coronavirus pandemic, Donald Trump, Boris Johnson, Jair Bolsonaro, COVID-19 deaths, downplaying coronavirus

By infecting three of the world’s most right-wing leaders, the coronavirus underscored not only the incompetence and irresponsibility of their governments – but the truth that their brand of populism doesn't keep people safe.

COVID-19, corporate bailouts, corporate welfare, corporate destruction

Corporations are not "too big to fail" and, when they commit crimes, they are not "too big to jail." As David Whyte writes in his new book, "Ecocide: Kill the Corporation Before It Kills Us," the moment is now to rein in out-of-control corporate power.

The world has lost an incredible thinker and doer. I have lost an amazing friend. A void exists where before it was filled with David's optimism, humour and joy.

Kevin Zeese speaks at a rally for Chelsea Manning. By Ellen Davidson.

Kevin fought to bring truth every day. We must not lose this struggle.

prison reform, incarceration rates, private prisons, for-profit prisons, white supremacy, enslavement, climate justice, racial justice, Green New Deal

The year 2020 has caused many white people to realize we live in a racist system. The Green New Deal is about systemic change for all, and deconstructing racism must be front and central in this agenda.

coronavirus pandemic, Donald Trump, Boris Johnson, Jair Bolsonaro, COVID-19 deaths, downplaying coronavirus

By infecting three of the world’s most right-wing leaders, the coronavirus underscored not only the incompetence and irresponsibility of their governments – but the truth that their brand of populism doesn't keep people safe.

COVID-19, corporate bailouts, corporate welfare, corporate destruction

Corporations are not "too big to fail" and, when they commit crimes, they are not "too big to jail." As David Whyte writes in his new book, "Ecocide: Kill the Corporation Before It Kills Us," the moment is now to rein in out-of-control corporate power.

The world has lost an incredible thinker and doer. I have lost an amazing friend. A void exists where before it was filled with David's optimism, humour and joy.

Kevin Zeese speaks at a rally for Chelsea Manning. By Ellen Davidson.

Kevin fought to bring truth every day. We must not lose this struggle.