Prolific sa国际传媒 filmmaker Velcrow Ripper will be tweeting live from New York Wednesday after the Victoria premi猫re of Occupy Love, his documentary about the social-media-driven global revolution from the Occupy movement to the Arab Spring.
It's part of Open Cinema's innovative season-10 initiative - post-screening discussions being live-streamed. The social media advances - which will soon include a virtual screening option - are putting Victoria's popular grassroots screening program on the documentary and social justice map, said Open Cinema director Mandy Leith.
"Even without that, it's furthering our mission of using cinema as a tool for worldwide community engagement," she said.
Leith hoped the "tweetchat" with Ripper, whose film concludes his Fierce Love social justice trilogy, will match the success of November's tweetchat following the documentary Play Again that drew 20,000 visitors online globally.
A Toronto tweeter asked if she could use the Twitter stream as a research resource for her master's thesis, Leith said.
Gibson's-born Ripper, a Bahai who co-founded the Gulf Islands Film and Television School, has drawn a huge following online and offline for his films about the intersection of spirituality and politics, she said, noting brisk advance ticket sales were testament to that.
Leith said audiences should get used to such "hybrid events" that include both a live and virtual component.
Occupy Love features input from visionaries on alternative systems of economics, sustainability and empathy such as political activist Naomi Klein, climate activist Charles Eisenstein and author and environmentalist Bill McKibben.
Wednesday's discussion, to be live-streamed at opencinema.ca at 8: 45 p.m., will be moderated by Rachelle Lamb, an educator who specializes in nonviolent communications.
Panelists include producer Ian Mackenzie, Victoria Shambala director and financial adviser Layth Matthews and Victoria writer and media activist Michelle Buchanan.
While advance tickets for the premi猫re have sold out, at least 30 will be available at the door starting at 5: 30 p.m.
For more information: opencinema.ca.
