NY1.com

  74º

You are not signed in  |  Sign in here  |  Help

You're viewing a lite version of NY1.com

Time Warner Cable customers: Sign in with your TWC ID for video access.

Get my TWC ID. | Get TWC service. | Read the FAQ.

01/06/2012 12:03 AM

Acclaimed Documentarian Discusses New Film About Occupy Wall Street

  To view our videos, you need to
enable JavaScript. Learn how.
install Adobe Flash 9 or above. Install now.

Then come back here and refresh the page.

A new documentary is telling the story of Occupy Wall Street on its own terms. NY1’s Stephanie Simon filed the following report.

One continued criticism of the Occupy Wall Street movement is that it does not have a unified message. After spending a few days at Zuccotti Park with a camera crew, filmmaker Kevin Breslin agreed.

He could not find a narrative thread among the diverse political agendas., but then he realized OWS was telling its own story. He was witnessing a media revolution, and that's the focus of his new Film, “#WhileWeWatch.”

“I've never heard of anybody not being paid to go out and tell a story the way they did—living in a park, sleeping on the ground, standing in the food line, rain, snow, cold, shivering,” says Breslin. “This is raw storytelling. I’ve never seen anybody do this in New York.”

Breslin is no stranger to the ins and out of journalism. He's the son of famed writer Jimmy Breslin, and last year he was an Academy Award short-list nominee for his documentary "Living for 32" about the Virginia Tech shooting.

From this experience Breslin, has strong words for police and protesters. He questions the city's position that there was no media blackout the night Zuccotti Park was cleared out.

“I had two camera people thrown out of there, tossed out, they were pushed way down the street. I had another guy three blocks away that couldn’t get in with his camera,” says Breslin.

Breslin also got shoved at times by the OWS folks and worse.

“I said ‘sir, what do you think?’ and he spit right in my face as I put down the lens,” says Breslin.

The New York premiere of the film is going to take place at the Paley Center on Wednesday night.

In addition to the screening, the center has also organized a Q&A session that's expected to be a very heated discussion about mainstream media versus citizen journalism

Certainly citizen journalism has shown it’s willing to spit in the face of traditional media. The place these renegades will occupy in history remains to be seen.

#WhileWeWatch Premiere

New York Premiere and Q&A Session
Wednesday, January 11, 2012
Kevin Breslin, Director, Filmmaker
Alan Capper, President, The Foreign Press Association
Jesse LaGreca, Writer, The Daily Kos, Journalist
Priscilla Grim, Occupy Wall St Journal, Journalist
Tim Pool, TimCast.tv, Livestream Journalist
Moderator: Pete Fornatale, New York DJ and Author
6:00 p.m. screening and discussion, 7:30 p.m. reception

A limited number of free tickets are available on a first-come, first-served basis. Please reserve at publicprograms@paleycenter.org

For more information, visit whilewewatch.com and paleycenter.org.