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Pixel Visions :
The Resurgence of Video Activism

by Rachel Rinaldo
07.09.01

LAST SPRING, tens of thousands of anti-capitalist activists descended on the Summit of the Americas in Quebec City. They came from all across North and South America to protest the intended formation of the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA), a multilateral agreement critics argued would bolster trade at the expense of democracy. They wore the usual gas masks and goggles and brandished banners. But amid the chants of protesters in the city's narrow streets, other sounds could be heard: the beeps of hundreds of hand-held video cameras. "In Quebec, so many people in the crowd had cameras that it appeared that groups of journalists were getting tear-gassed instead of groups of demonstrators," said Tish Stringer, a Houston-based video activist who attended the Summit.

In the year and half since the Battle in Seattle, protests have erupted everywhere global trade zealots have tried to assemble, be it the World Trade Organization (WTO) in Prague or the World Economic Forum in Melbourne. These events also mark a resurgence of video activism, and they may well have been the most widely disseminated protests ever. That fact is due, in part, to the creation of the Independent Media Centers (IMCs), a global network of activist websites and alternative media spaces, which allow any self-proclaimed journalist to post articles, photos, audio, and digital video footage. With Indymedia sites multiplying, the proliferation of video cameras in Quebec City came as no surprise to some. As Stringer puts it, "a video camera has become one of those objects you pack for a protest."

The IMCs are part of a loose but rapidly growing network of video activists, or, more broadly, media activists. These high tech activists use video to challenge the mainstream media, to disseminate information and news about events that are otherwise marginalized or not covered, to propagandize, and to document police abuse. They produce everything from agitprop shorts and news-style stories to documentaries and experimental works. In addition to their well-known websites, the IMCs, particularly in Seattle, Washington, D.C., and Prague, have distinguished themselves by collectively creating documentaries about the protests, such as "Breaking the Bank" and "Showdown in Seattle."

Past to Present

Though the rise of the Internet has fostered alternative media, today's video activism has deep roots in the political, social and art movements of the 1960s and 1970s [see "Video Precursors" sidebar, below], and IMC video work reflects this heritage. The major video activist efforts in the summer of 2000 provided alternative coverage of the U.S. Democratic and Republican political conventions just as an earlier generation of activists covered the 1972 Democratic Convention. But the IMCs are also doing a lot of things that haven't been done before.

For example, during the recent European Union Summit in Gothenburg (June 14-16, 2001), an array of videographers posted video clips of breaking events on the web, giving far-flung viewers a near real-time alternative to watching CNN.

What has made the IMCs possible is the profusion of small video activist groups, such as the 20-year old Paper Tiger Television, who have lent their considerable experience, equipment, and skills to a new generation of video activists. Others, like the WestCoast-based Whispered Media and Headwaters Video Action Collective, have been around for a number of years, working closely with local communities to produce programs for screenings and public access cable. And in the last few years, newer collectives like Sleeping Giant and Big Noise Films have popped up around the U.S. What the IMCs have done, ultimately, is bring together activists working in different groups and in different mediums—print, video, photo, and radio—to create a rich array of alternative media. Although Free Speech TV [see "Free Speech TV" sidebar, below] and Deep Dish TV, as well as the more familiar public access television, have been crucial platforms for video activism, Indymedia is probably one of the most far-reaching video and media activist projects ever undertaken.

According to DeeDee Halleck, who has been a video activist since the early '70s, and who helped found Paper Tiger, the IMCs have empowered media activists by allowing them to make their own media, and the viewers at home by making alternative news available at the same pace it unfolds on CNN. "What really happened in the Seattle thing was that, boom, you were able to do this self-publishing instantaneously."

Other long-time video activists, like Tom Poole, of Deep Dish TV, are impressed by Indymedia's cooperative culture: "In the early '90s, we all knew about each other but folks were more factionalized. Now you can see that there's a more collective effort."

Observing vs. Participating?

The relationship between video activism and grassroots movements is a complicated one. While most video activists see themselves as part of social movements, one side-effect of their work is the blurring of roles between activists, journalists, and artists or media makers. Halleck believes that media activism is all about politics, and argues that media intervention is an essential part of political protest. Should any fundamental social changes occur, she predicts that media activism will play a crucial part in them.

However, some video activists also recognize a tension between their roles as documentarians and political activists. Lisa Mastramico, an independent producer with community television in Santa Cruz County, Ca., found her press pass useful in Quebec, yet on the streets she wanted to hide it so protesters wouldn't see her as just a media person or mere observer. "I [wanted] to bear witness and record it, and at the same time...be there in solidarity and participate."

Video activism is obviously different from on-the-ground activism or community organizing. Worthwhile as it is, it has the potential to draw people away from the less glamorous business of making phone calls, talking to people, and organizing actions. But video activists can also help grassroots groups by making videos they can use in their organizing and fundraising work, or training them to make videos themselves.

Proliferation, Collaboration,
& Constructive Criticisms

Video is cheap and becoming more accessible by the day, with cameras now selling for less than $1000. When so many people have access to video equipment, collaboration becomes not only possible, but likely, and making compilation-style programs is one natural outcome. Video offers immediacy and spontaneity—clips can be broadcast instantaneously on the web, or else quickly edited into programs that can then be shown immediately in all sorts of venues. FSTV staffer Eric Galatas thinks that television will change dramatically as a result. "There are so many people now picking up DV [digital video] cameras, getting their hands on iMacs or G4s and editing great videos," he said. "I think we're going to look back on this period as a launch pad for an entirely new way of making and distributing television."

Tish Stringer contends that the era of the auteur film director is over. "The experiment of democratic film-making begun in the '60s is in full flower with these films, shot on multiple continents by hundreds of people, edited and distributed by many, with [widely] dispersed screenings and outlets."

Nevertheless, there are constructive criticisms to offer to the movement. Indymedia's work has drawn criticism for being stylistically conventional and repetitive, but one of the most frequently mentioned problems is its lack of diversity. Most of the producers are white, male, and middle class. This, despite the fact that a major share of the users and viewers of public access television in cities like New York and Chicago are African-American and Latino.

Of course, there are exceptions, including the Chiapas Media Project and Chicago's Street Level Youth Media, butmany young video activists seem more interested in helping create IMCs in remote locales than in figuring out how to give over the means of production to those marginalized back home.

Another challenge for video activists is learning how to move from simple documentation to more analytic storytelling. Tom Poole of Deep Dish TV and others agree that video activists need to present more analysis and solutions, rather than just showing people complaining about a problem or holding demonstrations. He worries that producers don't think critically about how they benefit from the power of the video camera, but he is optimistic that things will improve over time. "I'm hoping that, in three or four years, our intellectual challenge against the status quo will be further along," he said. "Once we move past that, we will make real change."

Unfortunately, one of the most neglected aspects of video activism is distribution. The reality is that most of the videos reach very small audiences. One new endeavor, Working Films, connects film and video makers with community organizers for the purpose of getting work shown at local screenings and educational settings, and to give activists direct input into documentaries. "Working Films is really saying we have to get... the organizations and the filmmakers talking to each other, instead of just talking to one side," says former DIVA-TV producer and current Working Films board member Catherine Gund.

Looking Forward

Although the likelihood of progressive media activists doing away with the mainstream media is slim to say the least, they might be able to circumvent and supplant it to some extent. A more exhilarating, and realistic possibility is that video activism will play a vital role in the emerging movements that are confronting the terms of globalization and attacking neoliberal capitalism. Activist videos inform people around the world that something can be done to change societies, and that regular people are doing it. They can bear witness to crimes committed by governments or corporations. And video, along with the web, enables small, isolated groups of activists to get their message out into a global arena, and to garner support. Not least, video technology allows people to represent themselves to the world, rather than being filtered through the often distorted lens of the mainstream media.

Halleck warns that increased state surveillance and harassment lie ahead. The recent disturbing incident in Seattle may be only the beginning. On April 21, during the anti-FTAA protests, the FBI served the Seattle IMC with a court order directing the IMC to hand over all its user connection logs and other records related to the IMC's coverage of the Quebec City demonstrations. The IMC refused to comply with the court order, and on June 13, just as the IMC prepared to challenge the order in court, it was suddenly withdrawn.

But despite the obstacles, or perhaps because of them, video activism is ready for whatever comes next. "I think video activism means becoming a kind of modern-day Prometheus," Eric Galatas from Free Speech TV says. "And you don't have to have any particular set of hero credentials to take part. TV is controlled by six global corporations—they control economies, governments, cultures, and can wreak havoc on individual lives. Media is their fire, but we can steal it, and use it."

Sidebar 1
Video Precursors: 1965 - Present

The first portable video cameras and players arrived in 1965. Nam June Paik, who was interested in critiquing the mass media and media culture, was one of the first artists to buy the new camera. According to Deidre Boyle, author of the book "Subject to Change: Guerrilla Television Revisited," Paik shot the arrival of the Pope in New York City from a taxi window, and played the tape at a Greenwich Village Cafe. He then disseminated a manifesto declaring that video would revolutionize art and information. Paik's insight was not only that the means to make and critique televised media was now in the hands of ordinary people, but that video had something no other medium possessed-simply put, its results were immediately available, no processing required.

In the next few years, inspired by Paik and others, New York-based artists and political activists started using video and forming production collectives. The best-known video collective of the 1970s was Top Value Television (TVTV), a group that came together to cover the 1972 Democratic Convention in San Francisco. It consisted of independent videographers, as well as members of the New York-based Videofreex and the San Francisco-based Ant Farm. TVTV created documentaries that were shown on cable stations in several U.S. cities, and eventually broadcast on PBS. Despite, or perhaps because of, their relative success, TVTV fell apart by the end of the decade.

However, several people who worked with TVTV and other early video efforts are still active today. One of them is DeeDee Halleck, co-founder of Paper Tiger and Deep Dish TV, and until recently, a professor of communications at the University of California-San Diego. Halleck, by her own account, was last employed in commercial media during her Tennessee high school days, and "absolutely hated it." Before long she started making documentary films.

The Paper Tiger video collective came into existence in 1981, after Halleck did a course with media theorist Herbert Schiller and she and her cohorts decided to film the media guru. They entitled their work "Herb Schiller Reads the New York Times" and showed it on public access TV. The format was a success and although Paper Tiger has branched out considerably since then, media critique has remained the essence of their 400-odd shows.

In 1986, Paper Tiger decided to rent satellite time to distribute their shows, and Deep Dish was born. Deep Dish began broadcasting programs consisting of segments by individual producers from around the country. One of the most famous Deep Dish programs was the Gulf War Crisis TV Project (1990-91), which consisted of ten half-hour shows involving hundreds of producers, media arts centers, activists, public access stations, and PBS stations around the country. It was also shown at film festivals and the Whitney Biennial. "The Gulf War Crisis TV Project was our IMC," said Deep Dish's Tom Poole.

Since then, in addition to continuing Deep Dish, both Halleck and Poole have been deeply involved with the IMCs.

There were other important precursors to current video activism, especially feminist video of the '70s. A more recent antecedent is the vibrant video scene of the late '80s and early '90s, which brought together artists, filmmakers, and political activists. One of the most vital elements of that scene was AIDS-related activist video, as well as lesbian and gay video in general. In 1989, ACT-UP's video affinity group, DIVA-TV (Damned Interfering Video Activist Television) started taping demonstrations and showing them on public access, which garnered them quite a bit of attention. The collective is still active, and produces a regular, weekly public access show, "AIDS Community Television." The lesbian feminist collective, Dyke TV, also continues to produce regular public access shows..

Some viewers of recent activist video criticize it for being aesthetically conservative, repetitive, and lengthy. Ironically, these issues rarely cropped up with older video activist work, which was often unconventional and quite engaging. Part of the problem is that video activism used to be much more strongly connected to video art and media arts. Much video activism from the 1970s through the mid-1990s was as much about artistic experimentation as about politics. These days, video activists most often emerge from the ranks of political activists and journalists, rather than from art schools.

Sidebar 2
Free Speech TV: Ahead of Its Time & Defining the Curve

The Colorado-based Free Speech TV has been a major platform for activist video for the last five years. FSTV provides weekly programming to public access stations and has a 24-hour satellite channel on the Dish Network, as well as an Internet site, with streaming video. Just about every video activist group you can name has had their work aired on FSTV. FSTV was instrumental in getting the IMCs off the ground, and helped coordinate and air the ground-breaking, live IMC satellite broadcasts from the 2000 Democratic and Republican political conventions.

Free Speech TV got its start with The 90s, which began in 1989. Jon Schwartz, now president of FSTV, was one of the show's founders. The 90s was an hour-long program of work by independent video producers, some of them alumnae of Videofreex and TVTV, and was syndicated on PBS until 1992.

Around the same time, Schwartz began leasing full-time cable channels from companies like United Artists Cable, and established The 90s Channel. The channel began acquiring independently-produced programs, such as the Deep Dish Gulf War series, and aired them in weekly two-hour blocks on seven cable stations.

In early 1995, The 90s Channel attempted to renew the lease on their cable channels, but were faced with a massive rent increase.

"We knew we had to find a new strategy and a new platform to provide programming that the corporate media wouldn't touch," said Stout. So they borrowed the Deep Dish model of providing programming to public access stations, and launched Free Speech TV in July, 1995. Later, they launched a website with streaming video, even though Internet video was still very much in its infancy. Free Speech Internet TV now gets 35,000 visitors a day, and has the web's largest online archive of progressive audio and video, says Stout.

In January 2000, under the new FCC rules requiring direct broadcast satellites to set aside channels for non-commercial programming, FSTV obtained a satellite channel through the Dish Network.. The satellite channel (9415) is available to 3.5 million homes, and FSTV provides weekly programming by satellite to a large network of public access stations.

FSTV doesn't do any original production, but according to Stout, they hope to do more live programs like the convention broadcasts. According to Stout, FSTV eventually hopes to have "a daily news program to provide [a] counterpoint to regular news programming and the Jim Lehrer Newshour." For now, they are concentrating on growing an audience. "Even as this becomes a larger and larger undertaking, we still see this as being a grassroots organization," explains Stout. "We operate low to the ground and we do a lot with minimal resources."
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Rachel Rinaldo is a freelance writer and graduate student in sociology. She is also a program coordinator for Indymedia Newsreal a monthly, half-hour compilation of 5-minute news segments contributed by independent producers around North America. It airs on FSTV starting in August in select cities.