The Days of the Commune

2012, 154:59 min, color, sound

In The Days of the Commune, Beloff reimagines Bertolt Brecht's 1949 play on the rise and fall of the 1871 Paris Commune as a response to the Occupy Wall Street movement, which began in the fall of 2011 in New York City's Zuccotti Park. Influenced by Brecht's anti-illusionist theater, which aimed at unmasking social and political contradictions by breaking theatrical illusion, Beloff composed her film from the public rehearsals she held in multiple locations around New York in the spring of 2012. Occupying the streets of New York without permits, she mobilized a cast of fifty actors, artists and activists as a form of guerrilla street theater.

Beloff draws comparisons between the Paris Commune and the Occupy movement, both of which raised issues of social and economic inequality, greed and corruption through takeovers of public spaces and the creation of "cities within cities." Beloff considers The Days of the Commune a "work in progress" -- a play, a movement and a revolution that continues to play out in the streets of New York, promoting the idea of history in an active dialogue with the present and the future.

Written, directed, and props made by Zoe Beloff. Cinematographer: Eric Muzzy. Music: Donald Kelly, Hannah Temple, Melissa Elledge, Nathan Koci, Bob Goldberg. Production: Nira Burstein. Costume Designer: Erika Munro. Cast: Nanda Abella, Mitchell Abidor, Michael Paul Britto, Julie Delaurier, Michael Friedman, Carlo Fiorletta, Pietro Gonzalez, Joy Kelly, Tony Lewis, Greg Mehrten, Cecilia Lynn-Jacobs, Brian Pickett, Reka Polonyi, Sean Shannon, Ahuva Willner, Joanie Fritz Zosike, Ellen Scott, Douglas Johnson, Kenji Johnson, Deborah Matzner, Aaron Beebe, Camilio Friedman, Jay Dobkin, Miranda Dobkin, Mark Skelly, Michael Hagins, Marie Weigl, Inas Kelly, Iris Dankemeyer, Diego Brindis.