7:00 pm | $5 suggested donation
The Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art at SUNY New Paltz will present a Hudson Valley Sneak Preview of the new documentary film Here Come the Videofreex.
Here Come the Videofreex is a 2015 official selection of the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival and the BAM BAMcinemaFest. The 79-minute film uses archival footage and new interviews to tell the story of the pioneering group of video-makers and media activists. It’s the quirky tale of ten people’s optimism and creativity, and their vision of what television could have become at a time when the three big networks ruled the TV airwaves. In 1972, the Videofreex collective launched America’s first pirate TV station, Lanesville TV, at Maple Tree Farm in the Catskills hamlet of Lanesville with a transmitter bartered by Abbie Hoffman. Their story offers a hopeful view of how independent voices can make themselves heard.
Filmmakers Jon Nealon and Jenny Raskin will be present at the Rosendale film screening to introduce their documentary. After the film, there will be a panel discussion with Videofreex members Skip Blumberg, Mary Curtis Ratcliff, Bart Friedman, and others, moderated by curator Andrew Ingall. They will talk about their early—and prescient—use of the SONY Portapak, and answer questions from the audience.
This program is supported by a grant from the New York Council for the Humanities, and is co-sponsored by the Rosendale Theatre Collective.
The program is presented in conjunction with the exhibition Videofreex: The Art of Guerrilla Television, on view through July 12 at the Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art, SUNY New Paltz. Organized by independent curator and scholar Andrew Ingall, the exhibition includes 22 newly restored videotapes, over 90 photographs and slides, and nearly 80 other objects including drawings, prints, ephemera, publications, and historic audiovisual equipment.
For more information about:
The Dorsky Museum, visit www.newpaltz.edu/museum
Here Come the Videofreex, visit www.videofreexfilm.com.
Here Come the Videofreex – extended trailer from NR Productions on Vimeo.