Community Video Report (Winter 1974)

6: local news Feminist video in D.C. by Vicki Costello Feminists in D.C. are moving together to take some control over the information going out about our movement. Too often women’s struggles and growth are being ignored or misrepresented by the established networks as well as by alternative media structures. We feel that we must be able to produce and distribute information that reflects our lives. With this goal in mind, many D.C. Feminists have turned to '%"’ video as a means to our own creative expression. Other local women are working through legal means to change the unfairness to women in network T.V. hiring and programming content. Both levels of activity are integral to the future of the women’s movement and a fair media. In an effort to publicize the groups involved legally and in tape production we've compiled the following listing: Feminist Video at the Washington Community Video Center—Women working out of the Center are producing their .own tapes and holding regular Feminist Video Screenings for the Community. Video workshops are given periodically, contact the Center for info. Tel.462-6700. Tapes available: Women’s Self Help, Feminist Counseling, An Alternative, and Self-Defense for Women. Feminist Media Project,‘which includes Radion Free Women working out of radio station WGTB, 90.1 FM and the Spectra Video Collective, an independent radical feminist video group. Their priority, next to making tapes, is to get women into the technical-electronic side of the video process. To help women do so, they give workshops monthly. For info. on workshops and/or tapes contact: Spectra Video Collective, 1629 16th St., NW Wash. D.C. Tapes available: Automechanics 1, and Women’s Cable TV Channel in Memphis. Electra Video—A loosely related group of feminist videotape makers. Tapes available: The Abortion March 1972, The American Univ. Women’s struggle for a Gynecologist, Earth Onion, Women’s Theater, Open Classroom, and The Closing of Jackson School. For info. on tapes contact Electra Video, 3518 35th St., NW Wash. D.C. Also available from same address, The Emerging Woman by the Women’s Film Project. It's a 40 min. b & w, 16 mm film on U.S, Women’s History. Women’s at Antioch’s Videoball—Tapes available: Abortion 1973, follows a woman through her entire process of having an abortion. Also: Christine, about a Georgetown drag queen, and Katherine’s Morning. For tape and other info. contact Jamie Robinson, 1033 St. Pauls St., Baltimore, Md. 301-685-0777. Women involved in the legal struggles include: NOW Women’s Task Force on TV station WRC license challenge—C ontact: 387-6895. NOW National Women’s Task Force on the FCC and Broadcasting—Deals with license challenges, affirmative action plans and quesitons of ownership. Contact: 387-6895. Women in Cable—Researching potential of future D.C. Cable system in regards to Women. Contact: Sally Banks Craig362-7192. Women at the Wash. Community Video Center are eager to set up communication and tape exchange with other Women in video. Please contact us through the center, if interested. A.C.T. convention in D.C. Action for Children’s Television (ACT) one of the most effective public-interest action groups in the media field, is holding its International Festival of Children’s Television at the Kennedy Center on March 31, April 1-2. In addition to screenings of various kinds of children’s programs, workshops and panels will be held. Registration, free to students, can be entered with ACT, 46 Austin St., Newtonville, Mass. 02160. By the way, an ACT-generated book called Children’s TV:The Economics of Exploitation by William Melody (New Haven: Yale, 1973) is not only a great primer on the issues involved in television for youngsters and the ACT response, but sheds light on the way the broadcast regulatory policy functions in Washington. G.W.U. law students WATCH (Watchers Against Television COmmercial Harassment), a group of George Washington University law students, has petitioned the FCC to limit commercial interruptions on television to the hour and half-hour and to provide a three year timetable for the reduction of commercial time to 8 minutes per hour. The group, led by consumer activist Prof. John Banzhaf, cited the ‘‘rsiing wave of viewer discontent’’ and ‘the inability of the broadcast industry to regulate itself’ as the reasons for immediate FCC action. The petition suggests that television stations initially be required to limit commercials to 9 minutes, 20 seconds during prime time and to 14 minutes at other times. After 3 years, the eight minute standard would go into effect. The petition would also ban all advertising during children’s programming on Saturday and Sunday mornings. Exemptions would be extended to public service announcements, editorials, political spots, and counter-commercials. Reprint, The Daily Rag WCVC self-report WCVC is in the midst of alot of activity and growth. With expanding people-energy we're reaching into more and varied sectors of the D.C. community with particular emphasis on the Adams-Morgan area where wd are based. Certain tape productions we've contracted with national and local organizations are giving us part of the necessary funding with which to sustain the Center and our other community-related video projects. More economic aid is continually being sought for subsistance and expansion of our activities. Part of the staff is actively involved with the Cable in D.C. issue, currently under investigation by municipal authorities. A report on the latest developments on the cable is included in the newsletter. Software Our most recently taped productions inglude: The Citizen’s Energy Conference: (Feb. 16-18) A national assembly of representative citizens and political/ecological groups investigating the current energy crisis. Tapes are available of speakers including: Ralph Nader, Barry Commoner, Ron Dellums and others. Also there are VTRs of workshops dealing with specific issues and possible strategies for citizen redress of problems such as the raising of public utilities rates. The tapes are designed for use by regional conferences, concerned citizen groups and college campuses. For info. on specific tapes available contact WCVC. Home Rule: A series of tapes done in conjunction with a coalition of D.C. Video groups including: the WCVC, CAFAM III, Project Accountability, and Anacostia Neighborhood Museum. tapes deal with various aspects of the D.C. Home Rule legislation. Community Park Tape: Grady and others have nearly finished a tape about the Shapiro tract, a privately owned space on Adams Mill Road which the community has been working to have purchased by the City for park and recreational space. The tape is a history of the struggle around the park for presentation to members of the Congress and others who could determine whether the parkland is bought. The project was initiated by Ed Diggs and Liz Kaplan and others working on the'park project in AMO and features almost everyone having anything to do with the several-year history of the park. Itself: A 15-minute tape WCVC made about ‘itself’ in December. Explains the whole idea of neighborhood television and shows many of the projects we’ve done over the last 6 months. Women’s Self-Defense: Vicki Costello produced a 17-min. tape with members of the D.C. Rape Crisis Center on techniques of self-defense. Stan Brakhage: An interview with the filmmaker, who is a central figure in the American independent film movement. He speaks of his vital concern with the “person” in his art as well as the problems faced by the artist in our society. Tape was done by WCVC’s new staff member, Gerardine Wurzburg who will be doing a series of tapes on Wash. area artists in teh coming year. Health tapes: Two tapes to be produced this spring in conjunction with the Washington Free Clinic. Women’s Self-Help: A demonstration by the women’s Health group of a pelvic exam and a diaphragm insertion. Also a discussion of the politics of gynecology. Male V.D.: Discussion and demonstrations relating to VD in men, both gay and straight. Training and screenings The Video Center has made available two levels of involvement in video for any individual and/or group interested. These are the operation of an open viewing space for weekly video screenings and the offering of video training course. The Thursday evening screenings are designed to be openly accessible to community groups who would like to present their concerns, via videotape and/or films, to other people. Programs can be built around relevant tapes from the Center’s library or we can assist in locating tapes from other places. WCVC is also open to the possibilities of helping groups to make their own videotapes and to experiment with live video in aiding group dynamics. Call 462-6700 to use this service. WCVC has many tapes from other cities which are interesting to see. We can acquire other tapes for you, too! Training courses in videotape production skills for beginner, intermediate and advanced students are offered periodically. The courses last for six session and cost $50 for those who can afford to pay. For more information on training courses, screenings and tapes contact the Washington Community Video Center.