TUNED IN, TURNED ON! Videofreex Tape the World at WRO Biennale

Videofreex Catskill Media Collective

Videofreex Catskill Media CollectiveOn Saturday, May 14, as part of the 14th WRO Media Art Biennale, Video Data Bank Director Abina Manning presents a program of works featuring recently preserved tapes from the Videofreex Archive.

The Videofreex were a pioneering video collective who utilized the Sony Portapak for countercultural video projects from 1969 to 1978. Since 2001 the 1,500 tapes they made, mostly on the now-defunct half-inch open reel format, have been housed at the VDB. As part of VDB's ongoing mission to preserve and archive important historical video, a number of tapes have been preserved each year. This program features clips from works shot by the Freex, including portraits of leading radicals from the era of the Vietnam War such at Yippie founder Abbie Hoffman, Black Power leader Fred Hampton, and the rise of the feminist movement in the U.S.; interviews with demonstrators and Hells Angels; early video erotica; social events and happenings; experimental video art; and live shots of a Videofreex pirate TV broadcast from their Lanesville communal house. Skip Blumberg, one of the original Freex, will also be in attendance.
Image: Lanesville Overview I, Videofreex, 1972

SCREENING DETAILS
Saturday, May 14, 2011, 12:00 PM
14th WRO Media Art Biennale
Helios Cinema, Kazimierza Wielkiego 19A