At her Iva Asks blog, Iva Radivojevic looks at how the spreading Occupy Wall Street movement is inspiring a new protest culture at CUNY. “This is a document about the struggle of students and adjunct faculty at Cuny,” she writes. “This local struggle is part of an international student movement against neoliberal dictatorship. This is only the beginning. The time for action is now.”

As she often does, Radivojevic writes on her blog the inspirations for her work. For this new video piece, one influence is a film by Jean Rouch and Edgar Morin.

From the blog:

And the latest inspiration is Jean Rouch and Edgar Morin‘s experiment Chronique d’un été (“Chronicle of A Summer”). One of first introductions to Cinéma Vérité, it illustrates the problems of film reality, how it’s depicted, portrayed and relayed to the audience. The film poses questions “Are you happy?” and “How do you live?” in an attempt to comment on the state of affairs in 1960 Paris. What I was most impressed by is the concept itself; the idea of approaching a theme/situation/topic from the point of view of social engagement and conversation, a study, a research in real time “authenticity of life as it is lived”. The film’s outcome was not what the parties had anticipated but rather it was a revelation of the many layers of representation…the subjects assuming a role on the camera, their awareness of assuming the role, the creation of a “socio-drama to permit each person to play out his life role before the camera.”

The Time For Action Is Now (Occupy CUNY) from ivarad on Vimeo.