American Autumn: an Occudoc (2012)

AMERICAN AUTUMN an Occudoc is the first feature-length documentary on the Occupy movement. This fast-paced, fact-filled production was filmed in New York, Boston, and Washington D.C., beginning in the earliest days of the movement. The film recounts recent history in a manner quite different from what many viewers may recall. AMERICAN AUTUMN answers those who continue to ask "What does the Occupy movement stand for?" and features footage of numerous actions and comments from many of those involved, including interviews and insight from key organizers and thinkers such as Medea Benjamin, David Degraw, Dr. Margaret Flowers, Lee Camp, Naomi Klein, Nathan Schneider, Ashley Sanders, Vlad Teichberg, Sgt. Shamar Thomas, Dr. Cornel West, and Kevin Zeese and many others from the 99% movement

Reviews

"We now have film of our own. This is not amateur hour. This is a movie as well made, in technical terms, as any Hollywood blockbuster with Pentagon funding..." - David Swanson, on MichaelMoore.com

"Dennis Trainor, Jr. is no outsider, but a gonzo journalist at these events." - FireDogLake.com

Director's Statement

I am not an expert on the economy, climate change, or foreign policy.

I'm also not an expert on sustainable farming systems, the history of social movements, or Legos for that matter.

The Occupy movement has experts on all of those things and more, but I am not really one of them.

I am a happily married husband and a father of two fantastic children. I live on a main street in a small New England town with actual white picket fences.

I made this movie for you, me and everyone we know in the hope that we can create a world where human need comes before corporate greed.

So why does it feel almost un-American to say that?

Think about it another way:

You know that scene from the Oliver Stone film Wall Street when Gordon Gekko, played by Michael Douglas in a role that would win him an Oscar, appears at a shareholder's meeting of a company, Teldar Paper, to defend his actions and his grotesque world view and delivers the now famous speech where he says:

"The point is, ladies and gentlemen, that greed -- for lack of a better word -- is good. Greed is right. Greed works. Greed clarifies, cuts through and captures the essence of the evolutionary spirit. And greed -- you mark my words -- will not only save Teldar Paper, but that other malfunctioning corporation called the USA!"

Audiences flipped out.

They cheered.

Everybody in the '80s wanted to be Gordon Gekko. But the thing is this: Oliver Stone wrote it as a piece of satire. But nobody got it. Just the opposite.

While Oliver Stone was trying to send up the excesses of the Reagan Era, Michael Douglas' portrayal helped inspire a whole generation of slick backed hairdos in double breasted suits to adopt the "greed is good" ethos. Fast forward to today and pursuing the American Dream as it has come to be defined, now delivers obscene wealth for very few while raining poverty and misery down on many, and serving as a homicidal force for others.

Because people do, in fact, die for lack of access to health care in the richest country in the world.

Human consumption is, in fact, accelerating the destruction of our planet.

People do, in fact, die in wars waged based on lies that profit a precious few.

Over five million children globally each year do not reach their fifth birthday because they die of starvation.

All of this is not because the system that puts man on the moon or can squeeze an entire library onto a computer chip the size of a thumbnail has failed to find a way to solve these problems, rather our system, without apology, places corporate greed above human need.

And greed, to take back the popular phrase, is not good.

Fuck you Gordon Gecko.

Now the question many within the Occupy movement are trying to solve is this one: What would a world with a culture and an economic system which places human need above corporate greed look like, and how do we bring that world into being?

Who cares what it is called? Call it Socialism. Call it Real Democracy Now, and Call it Chunky-Monkey-Cherry Garcia. The world needs to change radically, it needs to change dramatically, and it needs to change fast.

This documentary is an invitation for you to participate in that positive change.

Frankly, because, we need you. Yes, you.

--Dennis Trainor, Jr., Director of American Autumn: An Occudoc, June 2012

Director's Biography

Dennis Trainor, Jr. is a writer, filmmaker, performer and activist.

As the creator and host of Acronym TV, Dennis has written and produced editorial video commentary since 2007 and published over 800 videos during that span. His videos have garnered over 30 million views on YouTube alone. He formerly published under the alias "Davis Fleetwood" and while doing so was an embedded YouTube personality/media advisor on the staff of Dennis Kucinich's 2008 presidential campaign.

American Autumn: An Occudoc is his first full-length field documentary and premiered in June 2012.

A book of essays on the 2008 presidential campaign season, Droppin Knowledge Like a Clumsy Librarian (written as Davis Fleetwood) is available here.

Dennis is also the writer and director of the web series Snarkipedia (currently on hiatus, watch archived episodes here) and Heidi Horoscope (watch archived shows here).

With a background in professional theater as an actor, playwright and director, Dennis has a variety of stage credits in NYC, Boston and San Francisco and was the founding co-artistic director of the award-winning NYC-based theatre company Rude Mechanicals. He has taught theater at both colleges and high schools.

A New Yorker by birth and disposition, Dennis currently lives with his wife and two children in Groton, MA.

Trailers

American Autumn: an Occudoc Stills

Dr. Cornel West marching with Dennis Trainor, Jr. (holding microphone) in Washington, D.C. as seen in AMERICAN AUTUMN: AN OCCUDOC, a film by Dennis Trainor, Jr. Photo credit: Ellen Davidson. All rights reserved.

Opened Wednesday, September 26th, 2012

Tales of the Night (limited release):

Tales of the Night is renowned animation auteur Michel Ocelot (Kirikou and the Sorceress, Azur & Asmar)'s first foray into 3D animation. A hit at the Berlin Film Festival, the film extends the ear...

Covering Media