In the spring of 2012, Zoe Beloff brought together a group of actors, activists and artists to perform 
Brecht’s play The Days of the Commune in solidarity with Occupy Wall Street. Thinking about OWS as a radical theater of the people, Beloff conceptualized this project as a “work in progress.” Rather than stage the play in a theater, the group performed the work, scene by scene, in public spaces around New York City, starting in Zuccotti Park. These public rehearsals ran from March through May, the months of the Paris Commune's brief existence in the spring of 1871. Historian Mitchell Abidor will contextualize the project with comments on the Paris Commune—the first great modern Occupation where workers turned their city into a progressive democracy of the people. After the film screening, join Beloff in conversation with Amy Herzog and Tara Mateik about her film which brings this movement into dialogue with Brecht’s radical restaging, and with contemporary social movements.

Cosponsored by The Certificate Program in Film Studies.