ArtYard's Film Festival of Joy: Real Joy

3 to 5 PM & 7:30 to 9 PM

Saturday at the Film Festival of Joy features two documentary screenings exploring the real-life stories of Occupy Wall Street and the music of Afro-Cuban religious ritual, each with talkbacks with the filmmakers.

First up from 3 to 5:30 PM screening is All Day All Week: An Occupy Wall Street Story by filmmaker Marisa Holmes who was centrally involved in the Occupy movement and shot footage from its beginning through the Zuccotti Park eviction. Holmes joins us for a talkback after the film.

After a break, join us from 7:30 to 9 PM for a screening of the documentary Tierra Sagrada by filmmaker Ned Sublette offering a vibrant and immersive Afro-Cuban religious ritual. Sublette joins us after the film.

All Day All Week: An Occupy Wall Street Story

In the summer of 2011, a group of activists set out to Occupy Wall Street. Using social media and self-organization, their action became a global movement; within weeks there were more than 1000 occupations worldwide. People came together to oppose a corrupt political and economic elite and to call for real democracy. Documentary filmmaker Marisa Holmes was centrally involved in the Occupy movement and shot footage from its beginning through the eviction of OWS from Zuccotti Park. Her beautiful and moving film gives an intimate view of aspects ignored by traditional media, shedding light on the movement’s highs and lows. All Day All Week tells the story of Occupy Wall Street from the perspective of those who lived it.

Tierra Sagrada, New Jersey premiere!

A vibrant and immersive journey into the music of Afro-Cuban religious ritual, Tierra Sagrada was made pre-pandemic in January 2020 in west-central Cuba. The documentary takes the viewer into sacred spaces in a region of Cuba where captive Africans were brought in massive numbers as late as the 1860s. Tierra Sagrada features wall-to-wall singing, drumming, and movement leading up to the dramatic experience of spirit possession. Filmed in urban house temples, rural groves, and public fiestas in and around Matanzas and Sagua La Grande — places that have not previously been seen on film — it presents ancestors, elders, and youth, and a variety of African-descended drums.

Tickets cost $15; visit Artyard.org.