Reverend Billy

& The Church of Stop Shopping

documentary film | USA, Germany, Spain | 2002 | 60 min + 30 min interview | color

The first documentary feature about the beginnings of Reverend Billy, a.k.a. Bill Talen
- current green candidate for mayor of New York City.


View trailer


play loud! is happy to announce that Reverend Billy will challenge Michael Bloomberg
for the highest political office in New York City - he is running for mayor!


www.voterevbilly.org

Chicago Tribune, Boston Globe, Boston Herald

"A highly entertaining documentary film"
Boston Globe

"Fine piece of cinéma vérité"
University of California

"The film is a must for all people who believe that Michael Moore went mainstream"
Copenhagen Documentary Film Festival

"Which American TV will have the guts to show this film?"
Albert Maysles, Documentary Filmmaker, New York

"A documentary about the Messiah of Stop Shopping"
El País, Spain

"The most hilarious and pointed political theater in New York"
New York Times

Filmmakers Dietmar Post and Lucía Palacios have accompanied the Reverend and his troupe over the period of an entire year. The film follows the Reverend's "shopping interventions/actions" into cultural dead zones within the island of Manhattan such as Starbucks, Disney and the New York University construction site at the Edgar Allan Poe House.

Reverend Billy, a.k.a. Bill Talen, is an actor/performance artist and a leading figure in the anti-globalization movement. His work combines the forces of social and political change with the means of theater arts to counteract our media culture. His artistic and political work is influenced by various concepts of "street theater." His disruptions or "shopping interventions" in public spaces are in the tradition of the Living Theater, José Bové, Lenny Bruce, The Yippies. New York Times theater critic Jonathan Kalb calls his work "the most hilarious and pointed political theater in New York, something that has to be done in the risky environment of the street." The actions/performances inside and outside of Starbucks coffee shops and Disney stores often end with the Reverend being arrested. He calls it stepping into somebody's imagined box. The police call it illegal trespassing. The Reverend claims that social change always begins with civil disobedience and includes as his heroes the civil rights, peace and labor movements.

 

 


 

comming soon


DVD
available for only 10 € at our shop
December 16th, 2008

Special features:

Interview with Bill Talen
(30 min)
German & Spanish Subtitles
Theatrical trailer
Crew Information
Crew Information

For more information visit

 

 

coming soon


New US DVD release on New Video/Docurama
December 16th, 2008

Special features:

Interview with Bill Talen
(30 min)
Reverend Billy in Berlin (20 min)
German & Spanish Subtitles
Theatrical trailer
Crew Information

For more information visit www.docurama.com

 


More information on Reverend Billy and his work at www.revbilly.com and www.voterevbilly.org