In 2011, millions rose up against Wall Street gangsters who crashed the global economy. Occupy Wall Street: An American Dream (dir. Michelle Fawcett, 2025, 51 min.) is an electrifying look at how a populist upsurge swept the nation, put oligarchs on their back foot, and revived working-class politics. Reserve your seat to see the DC premier of this new documentary followed by a conversation with Dr. Margaret Flowers, Chip Gibbons, Omar Ocampo, and Arun Gupta.
Speakers:
- Margaret Flowers is the director of Popular Resistance and the host of Clearing the FOG. She was a core organizer of the October2011 movement, which occupied Freedom Plaza in Washington, DC for six months. She has organized several more targeted occupations since then.
- Chip Gibbons is the Policy Director of Defending Rights & Dissent where he defends the American people’s right to know and freedom to act. He is also the author of the forthcomipy Wng history The Imperial Bureau: The FBI, Political Surveillance, and the Rise of the U.S. National Security State. Chip was present at Occuall Street on day one and has previously written about his experiences.
- Arun Gupta is an investigative journalist. He founded The Occupied Wall Street Journal and covered the Occupy Wall Street movement across the country for Salon, The Guardian, The Nation, and other outlets.
- Omar Ocampo is a researcher for the Program on Inequality and the Common Good and has been with the Institute for Policy Studies since 2020. His work focuses on income and wealth inequality, housing affordability, and private aviation.
- Michelle Fawcett, PhD, has worked in the media from Hollywood to academia to grassroots organizing. She is the director of Occupy Wall Street: An American Dream, a film based on travels to 42 occupations in 27 states in 2011-2013.
Co-sponsors: Defending Rights & Dissent, Institute for Policy Studies, and Occupy USA Today.
