Since 2021, people have been engaged in a struggle to block construction of the largest police training center in the US in a 500-acre forest in southeast Atlanta. The project was branded “Cop City” to highlight a signal feature of its plans, a “mock city” for military-style training exercises. Between 2021-2023, hundreds of people occupied and lived in the forest, successfully delaying construction for two years. The movement to “Defend the Atlanta Forest” aimed to hold the city council to its earlier promise to formally incorporate the forest, previously the site of a city prison farm, as a public park. Instead, the occupation was forcibly evicted in a series of violent police raids that culminated in the killing of Manual “Tortuguita” Esteban Paez Teran by a Georgia State Patrol officer on January 18, 2023.

Join us on Sunday, February 2nd at 7:30pm as we present two films from the struggle to Stop Cop City by filmmaker and researcher Sasha Tycko, who spent two years living and working at the activist site.

After the films, Sasha and n+1 editor Mark Krotov will lead a discussion. For more information on the experience at Stop Cop City, check out Not One Tree, an experiential, long-form piece co-written by Sasha from the Fall 2023 edition of n+1.

Film descriptions are below.

DWELLING: A MEASURE OF LIFE IN THE ATLANTA FOREST
Dir. Sasha Tycko. 2023.
United States. 40 min.
In English.

DWELLING: A MEASURE OF LIFE IN THE ATLANTA FOREST follows one Atlanta forest defender’s quixotic attempt to build a hut by hand in the forest occupation at the center of the fight against Cop City. By patiently following the building process, this observational film explores how the utopian visions of the movement meet the practical challenges of living in the forest. As a militant struggle unfolds offscreen, the film contemplates the nature of work, technology, and making a home.

— preceded by —

ATLANTA FOREST GARDEN: FOUR DAYS OF WORK
Dir. Marion Lary & Sasha Tycko. 2023.
United States. 12 min.
In English.

In March 2023, at the height of the movement to Defend the Atlanta Forest/Stop Cop City, ATLANTA FOREST GARDEN: FOUR DAYS OF WORK follows the guerilla gardeners of the Weelaunee Food Autonomy Festival as they plant a food forest on disturbed land, just days after the notorious police raid on the music festival threatened to cancel everything.