Community Video Report (Autumn 1974)

8: video ‘Cuba— the People’ Aired by PBS, Downtown Community TV AMC interns for 1975 The Alternate Media Center has announced that it will continue its successful cable internship program in 1975, and is accepting applicants on a deadline of Dec. 15, 1974. Applicants must locate a cable television system which is willing to support half of the costs of the project, as well as to allow the intern to produce programming. The intern’s yearly salary is $8580. Applications and requests for information can be directed to: AMC, Robert Pinto, 144 Bleeker, NY 10012. (212)598-3338. News from Lanesville Folks Lanesville TV is still on the air after more than two years of providing weekly live-andtaped programming for this tiny upstate New York community. The Video-freex, one of the pioneering video groups, moved to Lanesville from New York City and began sending out programming to local residents over the air. They have shown not only their own tapes and live stuff on their “self-service community TV experiment of the airwaves,” but they also show tapes from other parts of the country. If you have something you'd like to exchange, they’re open to it. “Feedback guaranteed.” Write Lanesville TV, Lanesville, NY 12950 The Freex are also very interested in any video about circuses. To inquire or exchange tapes, write: Media Bros. Circus, c/o Videofreex/Media Bus, Lanesville, N.Y. 12450. Denver Project won't quit From the Denver Community Video Center’s summer Newsletter: Every video group, we surmise, has a project that just won’t. In September of 1973, we began to tell the tale of the two cities of Georgetown and Silver Plume and the railroad which made them both famous at the turn of the Century. The Georgetown railroad carried ore for processing in Silver Plume just two miles away. Because of the steep grade, however, the train track looped back over itself on a high bridge thought to be one of the Last Spring the Cuban government set a precedent by giving a group of people, from the Downtown Community TV Center in New York City, access to travel throughout the island and document what they saw. From the 45 hours of videotape that were shot, the people from the Center have edited an hour show, ‘Cuba—The People, airing on the PBS network December 2nd. The trip was the result of two years of work to gain admission to Cuba. On a very short notice they received permission from the Cuban government. A crew of four people went: Jon Alpert, Yoko Maruyama, Keiko Tsuno, and Carlos Diaz, translator. Most of the available non-fiction images of Cuba center on the people in power. In this tape, they have shown us what life is like for the ordinary citizenry, and have explored the memories of the country before the revolution. For the project they picked up one of the first colour JVC cameras and a portapak, only a few months prior to TVTV’s venture into portable colour cameras (see article page 1). “We really were fortunate that we didn’t have any problem with the equipment, since it was brand new,” said Jon Alpert from the Center. It took them awhile to find out what they could shoot. “We had problems because the JVC is very slow in responding to changing light levels.” They had a good amount of tape that was unusable because they were walking with the portapak, which gave them an incomplete signal that will not transfer up to quad. “The people there were confused by the amount that we shot, because they are used to film crews, who shoot little bits. Sometimes we would playback what we had just taped for people,” said Jon Alpert. . There is much to commend in ‘Cuba—The People.’ The task of capturing a culture that has been untouched by the media casting system is difficult. Being critical of this show is difficult. Finally, we have a glimps of life in Cuba. Although the vision is not a deep analysis, the very ‘act of seeing the people’ unveils great subtleties. When they returned from Cuba, they approached the networks. Most weren’t interested, except CBS who wanted the tape unedited. Finally, WNET/13, TV-Lab in New York, went behind it. “There was an important precedent set in this production,” remarked Jon Alpert, “For the first time public television let someone edit their own tape on a controversial subject.” Downtown Community TV Center is located in Chinatown. In addition to training in video, they also do documentaries on the Lower East Side and Chinatown. For more information: 153 Court St., N.Y., N.Y. “Great Mystery” is a color videotape available for broadcast and distribution in one inch, half inch, and % inch cassette format. The voices and faces are those of chiefs, medicine men, and leaders from many tribes and they speak with the authority of revelation. John Fire Lame Deer, Henry Crow Dog, Rod Skenandore, Beeman Logan, Frank Fools Crow, David Managa, Mirium Crawford, Tom Cook, Louis Papineau, Mathew King. Sioux, Blackfoot, Oneida, Seneca, Hopi, Navaho, Mohawk, Onandaga, Crow. Some are young but many are in their seventies so the information is historical and precious wisdom. They speak of a time of destruction in which many people who have ignored the laws of nature will perish, but the ones who have prepared themselves will be standing on the mountains thanking the creator for their incredible good fortune. The visions and sacred ceremonies take us to a place we have long forgotten and the songs of nature remind us of the wonder and beauty of our Mother Earth. This tape came about from over two years of taping and being with Native Americans in New York State, on South Dakota reservations, at the Stockholm U. N. Environmental Conference, and in Boston during Indian Week. It was edited in the Synapse Studios at Syracuse University on one inch color IVC and is a collage of half inch video, color slides of nature, photographs by E.S. Curtis of tribal life around the turn of the century, and multiple track audio overlays. The result is a fast moving sensual experience which takes one further into the realm of spiritual enlightenement than is usually possible with a two-dimensional medium. If you are interested in obtaining a copy of this tape please contact us and include information about your group, what use will be made of the tape, and what format you will require (equipment it will be played on, black & white or color, etc.). Contact: APRIL VIDEO, Box 77, Route 375, Woodstock, New York 12498. engineering wonders of its day. In 1972, the Colorado State Historical Society began to create the historic railroad and its loop once more. By then, Georgetown was a thriving tourist town while Silver Plume had kepts its stand-offish ways. Communication was not too great between the Society, the “railroad people”, and the towns. We set out to get the story of the loop, interviewing the miners (now in their 70’s) who remembered it. We talked to town officials of both towns and the Historical Society, and collected some 8 hours of tape on what came to be known simply as the Project. No real planning, just collect the tape. Well, who was going to edit that tape? A lot of people had a lot of ideas on how it should be done, but few stepped forward to do the work. Into the gap came Kathy Gunning, our fearless President. Sure, a whole lot of people participated at some point, but it was Kath’ that did the damn thing. Now, we have a new tape, probably the best thing the DCVC has produced. Thanks to her. Write DCVC: 1400 Lafayette, Denver 80218, MIDWEST VIDEO CONFERENCE Video people in the midwest discovered that a regional approach to cooperative efforts is more “manageable” that the national model which had been tried in the past when they met for the first Midwest Community Video Conference in September. More than 50 individuals from an estimated 20 organizations from Denver to Ann Arbor attended the 3-day event sponsored by three Wisconsin groups. Highlighting the conference itself was Friday and Saturday night cablecasting over the Madison cable television system. Some 15 video groups appeared on the cable to explain their work and to show taped excerpts. (The 6 hours of tape are available on ¥%,” cassette or 4” from Community Video Exchange, 814 W. Wisconsin Avenue, Milwaukee, Wis. 53233). The work sessions resulted in a number of concrete plans for greater cooperation between working video people in the region including: — Midwest Video News: Groups agreed to subscribe and contribute to a new monthly information exchange, which is going to be coordinated by WIDL Video in Chicago. WIDL had already been publishing their own newsletter (See CVR Vol. 2, No. 1), which they volunteered to change into a regional organ of video groups. Others are welcome to subscribe at $4/year, from: 5875 N. Lincoln Ave., Chicago, Ill. 60659. —Joint activities: As the first issue of MVN reports, many people who got together for the first time were able to plan cooperative work. —Video Bicycle. Ten groups agreed to participate in a bi-weekly tape exchange, a kind of electronic chain letter, to keep each other informed of what’s happening. WIDL Video, publishers of Midwest Video News, have also produced a video directory of groups in the midwest. Write them fora copy. VIDEOWORKS has 2 political tapes Videoworks, a Los Angeles-based video production group, has recently announced availability of two political videotapes: —*“Education in China: students work, workers learn”, which was made in cooperation with the U.S.-China Peoples Friendship Association, is a fiction documentary made during recent delegations to China. Subject matter includes the story of Huang Shuai, an elementary student whose persistence in criticizing her teacher’s traditionalism made her case an example throughout China; illiterate housewives who turned their repair shop for scales into the country’s leading transistor equipment factory; scenes from Tsinghua dnd Nanking universities. 20 min. Script: Dr. Linda Shiu, Professor of Chinese, Cal State Dominguez Hills. Available 4” or A” color ($100) or 1” ($125). 50% to Associa tion. Shot on super 8 and stills, transferred to 1”, edited on SONY 340s. —Re-opening the Rosenberg Case: An interview with Robert Meeropol”. The sone of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg puts the demand for reopening the case in its historical context. 20 minutes, B&W. For showings, through L.A. committee to Reopen the Rosenberg Case, 555 N. Western Ave, L.A. Calif. Sale: $100 for 4”mr 4”. 50% profit to committee. For purchase or information, write: VIDEOWORKS, 3112 Penn. Avenue, Santa Monica, Calif. 90404. New England Conference “Video Image Nation” is conference at the New England Center for Continuing Education (2 Strafford Ave., Durham, N.H.) on Feb. 7-9, 1975. Featured are Author Gene Youngblood (Expanded Cinema, Videosphere) Kit Laybourne of the Center for Understanding Media, artist Woody Vasulka, WGBH-TV’s Fred Barzack. $60 fee covers two nights’ lodging and 5 meals. Lake Placid Video Center for Music, Drama, and Art in Lake Placid, N.Y. sponsors a variety of video workshops that last 6 weeks long and continue throughout this winter and spring. For further information: Video Workshops, Ctr. for Music, Drama, and Art, Saranac Ave at Fawn Ridge, Lake Placid, N.Y. 12946. Denver Workshop ideas Denver Community Video Center (1400 Lafayette, Denver 80218) report, in their fall newsletter, that they are trying a new format for the workshops—the Video Weekend. “The idea is to spend the entire weekend, 7-10 Friday, 9-5 Saturday and Sunday, using the portapak, producing a video statement and editing the tape. Not a bad way to experience the new television.” Costs vary from $40 to $80.