The Occupy CUNY movement

Film brought to you by Iva Radivojevic (ivaasks.com) & Martyna Starosta (thefilmdetective.org)

The film explores the legacy of the 1969 takeover of City College for the current Occupy CUNY movement. This historical occupation was led by students of color and won open admissions.

The film is dedicated to freedom fighter Louis Reyes Rivera who passed away on March 2, 2012.

Rivera spoke to Students United for a Free CUNY at the AME Church in Harlem on October 27. His powerful words are inter cut with speeches by students from different universities at Union Square as part of the Occupy Wall Street Day of Action on November 17, 2011.

At a stature of less than 5 feet, Rivera literally embodied with his loud, steady, luminous flow of prose-poetry that we, history’s little folks, could galvanize and transform any space we occupied.
– Conor Tomás Reed

Louis Reyes Rivera, known as “the janitor of history,” is the type of person who we often allow to fall through the cracks of recorded “official” history, but whose memory is passed on through the African oral tradition.
– Hank Wiliams

Documentation is a behavior I learned from him. Archive is a survival instinct he tried to teach us all.
– Rich Villar

Learn more about the legacy of Louis Reyes Rivera:
Remembering Louis Reyes Rivera – The People’s Poet by Conor Tomás Reed

Learn more about the long tradition of CUNY’s freedom fighters:
Struggle for a free CUNY

Get involved:
Occupy CUNY News