FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE One Year Later: Did Occupy Wall Street Change Us?

Vancouver September 20, 2012. Filmmakers, journalists, and activists from across Canada will take part in DOCUMENTING OCCUPY, a film screening and discussion taking place on October 3. One year after Occupy first began, the event looks back on the protests that captured worldwide public attention. DOCUMENTING OCCUPY kicks off with a screening of short films, The Evolution is Love, at Simon Fraser Universitys dowtown Harbour Centre campus. The program will conclude with a panel discussion and Q&A session on the challenges of documenting Occupy with journalist David P. Ball, SFU professor Kathleen Cross, and rabble.ca editor Derrick OKeefe Nova Ami, Ian MacKenzie, and Velcrow Ripper, the filmmakers behind The Evolution is Love, will host the screening and take attendees on a journey deep into the protests with footage collected during the filming of their upcoming feature documentary Occupy Love. In addition to The Evolution is Love and the panel discussion, the event will be introduced by long-time Canadian activist and author of Occupy This!, Judy Rebick. DOCUMENTING OCCUPY is the first in the new CounterCulture Speakers Series, a partnership of The Media Democracy Project and SFUs Institute for the Humanities. The event will be held on Wednesday, October 3rd, 2012 at the SFU Harbour Centre Campus (515 West Hastings St.) and is free to the public. Doors open at 6:30PM. Register to attend at http://documentingoccupy.eventbrite.com/ or head to www.mediademocracyday.org for more information. About the CounterCulture Speaker Series: CounterCulture is a discussion and screening series aimed at engaging interested members of the public in critical debate on issues relating to art, media and political change. CounterCulture aims to promote the democratic ideals of dissent, debate and discussion, constituting a point of contact between the university and local communities with free, public events held at SFUs downtown Harbour Centre campus. Sponsored by SFUs Institute for the Humanities, CounterCulture will help to create a significant presence for non-commercial alternative, independent, and democratic media in Canada. About The Media Democracy Project (http://www.mediademocracyday.org/) The Media Democracy Project is a group of people from both academic and activist communities who are committed to democratizing the media. We believe that the media are central to the question of democracy for at least three reasons: (i) they are a significant source of political and cultural information for Canadians, (ii) they make some perspectives or messages part of the public discourse and neglect or omit others, and, (iii) they are owned by large corporate conglomerates, who wield significant political and economic power. Our project is to promote

democracy of the media system itself and through the media, and to do so we focus on three principles, as identified in our tag line: Know the Media | Be the Media | Change the Media -30Media Contacts: Kathleen Cross, PhD. Chair, The Media Democracy Project 778-782-3861 kcross@sfu.ca Stuart Poyntz, PhD. Steering Committee, The Media Democracy Project 778-782-7293 spoyntz@sfu.ca Josh Tabish Lead Coordinator, Media Democracy Days 2012 778.782.7353 mddcoordinator@gmail.com