Sounds in the Distance is a video adaptation of David Wojnarowicz's 1982 book Sounds in the Distance: Thirty-five Monologues from the Road.

Cast in order of appearance: Allen Frame, Tara Kelly, Nan Goldin, Kirsten Bates, Elisabeth Walker, Bill Rice, Brian Burchill, Suzanne Fletcher, Frank Franca.

Directed by Kirsten Bates and Allen Frame, Produced by Peggy Bates

1984
https://www.vdb.org/node/83266
Kirsten
Bates
41483
Kirsten Bates
Activism

"When we show you pictures of napalm victims, you'll shut your eyes. You'll close your eyes to the pictures. Then you'll close them to the memory. And then you'll close your eyes to the facts." These words are spoken at the beginning of this agitprop film that can be viewed as a unique and remarkable development. Farocki refrains from making any sort of emotional appeal. His point of departure is the following: "When napalm is burning, it is too late to extinguish it. You have to fight napalm where it is produced: in the factories."

1969
https://www.vdb.org/node/9912
Harun
Farocki
41106
Harun Farocki
Activism

These are the ghosts of a haunted civilization, a culture of progress that hides the social and political horror behind the Olympic Games. These are the haunted figures in the Capitalocene era. A sinister dance of macabre abstraction. Part of the Hauntology series.

2019
https://www.vdb.org/artists/colectivo-los-ingr%C3%A1vidos
49702
Colectivo Los Ingrávidos
Activism

A political composition on natural resistance. These images are an expiring breath in danger of extinction. These images become extinguished, consumed: a drop, a pure intensity which only appears when falling. In the presence of the image these audiovisual crowds become an affected body, assaulted by entropy. A face exhausted and reanimated by the continuous sound trance that traverses the battlefield. Faces for an eye that would not need to see.

2019
https://www.vdb.org/artists/colectivo-los-ingr%C3%A1vidos
49702
Colectivo Los Ingrávidos
Activism

A provocative half-hour of guerrilla artists caught in the act on videotape, Undeniable Evidence is a public art extravaganza assembled by Igor Vamos and anonymous culture jammers.

Ephemeral pieces documented include Grupo Baja Mar/The Low Tide Group. An artists' group uses the unique geologic and architectural features of Spain's San Sebastian's beaches to create a giant public billboard that wipes itself clean each day with the incoming tide.  In English and Spanish.

1995
https://www.vdb.org/node/9657
Igor
Vamos
40847
Igor Vamos
Activism

In the late 1990’s I presented a slide lecture on how my art references impermanence and dying. In 2014, video artist and editor Tobe Carey scanned the slides from the lecture and we collaged together the spoken narrative, images both of my own work and also of death rituals from many different cultures, creating an Endgame-like collage. There are images from my study in Benares at the Burning Ghats, images from my film Mitchell’s Death, and descriptions of ways that my work and death seem to be close cousins.

2014
https://www.vdb.org/node/9530
Linda
Montano
40715
Linda Montano
Activism

Gravity Hill Newsreels: Occupy Wall Street comprises Jem Cohen’s twelve-part series as a continuous and complete compilation. Cohen, who witnessed the New York occupation from day one, borrowed a digital camera and started gathering footage in subsequent weeks. Initially acting upon an instinctive impulse to document and be guided by the events of the movement through quiet participation, Cohen’s documentation took a more public and expansive form through an agreement with the IFC Center, a local movie theater.

2011
https://www.vdb.org/node/83282
Jem
Cohen
40655
Jem Cohen
Activism

This two-part video Gender Cruise on the Circle Line involves Brenda and Glennda leading a group of drag queens, drag kings, and other gender nonconforming people on a three-hour ride on the Circle Line boat around Manhattan.

1991
https://www.vdb.org/node/83199
Glenn
Belverio
48982
Glenn Belverio
Activism

In Bad Grrrls, Glennda and Fonda LaBruce attend a Riot Grrrl conference on New York’s Lower East Side. At the conference, they conduct interviews with punk women, performers and artists, including Penny Arcade and Sadie Benning. In doing so, Glennda and Fonda navigate a range of perspectives on feminism, punk, and underground activism. Furthermore, they engage with questions of drag’s relationship with feminism, and how one would reconcile the problems of punk with Riot Grrrl’s desire for women’s liberation. 

1993
https://www.vdb.org/node/83199
Glenn
Belverio
48982
Glenn Belverio
Activism

In this episode of The Brenda and Glennda Show, Brenda and Glennda create a satire of 1990's infomercials. The video includes interviews and performances by Vaginal Davis, Bruce LaBruce, and Chris Teen.

An episode of The Brenda and Glennda Show, hosted by Brenda Sexual and Glennda Orgasm.

1992
https://www.vdb.org/node/83199
Glenn
Belverio
48982
Glenn Belverio
Activism

After an all-night session of editing Free Society, Garrin headed home with video-8 camera in-hand, only to happen upon the Tompkins Square riots. As police tried to enforce a curfew aimed at removing homeless people from the park, Garrin began gathering footage of cops beating up protesters. He was then attacked by police himself, as the camera continued to roll. The footage was subsequently incorporated into Free Society, in which the military myth of "protect and serve" is dismantled by first-hand experience.

1988
https://www.vdb.org/node/9598
Paul
Garrin
40786
Paul Garrin
Activism

Interspersed with clips of Judy Garland films and televised concerts, Glennda Orgasm and Judy LaBruce (Bruce LaBruce's Garland inspired drag persona) travel to the West Village to "discover their gay roots". They discuss the current state of queer culture with people attending gay bars and patroning queer businesses, with a cameo from Sadie Benning. They discuss the idea of the post-queer movement, and give guests a "post-queer quiz". 

An episode of Glennda and Friends, hosted by Glennda Orgasm and Judy LaBruce.

1993
https://www.vdb.org/node/83199
Glenn
Belverio
48982
Glenn Belverio
Activism

A "young woman who finds herself surrounded by the relics of Western culture" is the subject of Richard Foreman's formal tableaux. The narration centers on a young woman's struggle to find a relation between her body and her self as mediated by language. The text is a poetry of formal relations that carries personal and historical implications, including the desires of the woman paradoxically voiced by a male narrator. The title suggests the vivid virtuality of dreaming; scenes repeatedly refer to both reading and sleeping.

1976
https://www.vdb.org/node/9690
Richard
Foreman
40880
Richard Foreman
Activism

A collage of informal interviews and short clips, this collection of material comes from guerilla TV excursions at the 1976 Democratic National Convention. Conducted off hand, usually amidst crowds of other journalists, the footage oscillates between slight antagonisms, genuine interest, and tongue-in-cheek play. The sheer breadth of participants being engaged with, however, is quite impressive as the soon-to-be First Lady, Jesse Jackson, David Dellinger, Bella Abzug and Jerry Brown all make appearances.

1976
https://www.vdb.org/node/9793
40985
Activism

An incomplete and imperfect portrait of reflections from Standing Rock. Cleo Keahna recounts his experiences entering, being at, and leaving the camp and the difficulties and the reluctance in looking back with a clear and critical eye. Terry Running Wild describes what his camp is like, and what he hopes it will become.

2017
https://www.vdb.org/node/10117
Sky
Hopinka
46290
Sky Hopinka
Activism

In her video Homeward Bound, Bear documents the Homeward Bound Community Services, a group of self-supporting homeless citizens who gathered at City Hall Park in 1988 to protest New York City’s housing policies and Mayor Ed Koch’s lack of support for the homeless community.

1988
https://www.vdb.org/node/83276
Liza
Béar
40647
Liza Béar
Activism

On the eve of the 1984 Presidential election, Jenny Holzer used a truck equipped with a sound system and an 18-foot Diamond Vision electronic board to display images, statements, and man-on-the-street interviews. This tape presents a tightly edited version of the art, texts, and interviews that occurred throughout the day.

1984
https://www.vdb.org/node/83299
Jenny
Holzer
40682
Jenny Holzer
Activism

In One Man Ladies, Glennda Orgasm is joined by Vaginal Davis as they meet women on the streets of New York City to discuss Laura Schlessinger's book Ten Stupid Things Women Do to Mess Up Their Lives. The pair humorously explore the best ways modern women can find and secure a husband. 

An episode of Glennda and Friends, hosted by Glennda Orgasm and Vaginal Davis.

1996
https://www.vdb.org/node/83199
Glenn
Belverio
48982
Glenn Belverio
Activism

This video, shot in March 1970, contains raw footage from a Women’s Liberation event and discussion that took place in an art space. The tape begins with shots of the crowd mingling while music and speeches are heard in the background. Speakers address the audience, and the tape continues to record the discussion that follows. The main topics are abortion and contraception, and how they relate to power dynamics and the struggle for Women’s Liberation in general.

1970
https://www.vdb.org/node/9793
40985
Activism

Habit is an autobiographical documentary that follows the current history of the AIDS epidemic along dual trajectories: the efforts of South Africa’s leading AIDS activist group, the Treatment Action Campaign, struggling to gain access to AIDS drugs and the daily routine of the videomaker, a veteran AIDS activist in the U.S. who has been living with AIDS for more than ten years.

2001
https://www.vdb.org/node/9596
Gregg
Bordowitz
40784
Gregg Bordowitz
Activism

In this video, Brenda Sexual, Glennda Orgasm, and friends act out a drag queen murder mystery that takes place on their talk show. Later, they attend the Queer Fashion Army Invasion, a sit in of openly queer public fashion performance outside the Fashion Institute of Technology in Manhattan. Then, the pair arrives at a video store to discuss queer undertones of Hollywood films, like Grease, Rocky II, and Yentil.

1990
https://www.vdb.org/node/83199
Glenn
Belverio
48982
Glenn Belverio
Activism

In the Queen City is a series of three videos shot in Buffalo, New York that were produced following an invitation from Hallwalls Contemporary Art Center as part of their Ways In Being Gay festival.

An episode of The Brenda and Glennda Show, hosted by Brenda Sexual and Glennda Orgasm. Production Support Provided by Hallwalls Contemporary Art Center.

1990
https://www.vdb.org/node/83199
Glenn
Belverio
48982
Glenn Belverio
Activism

Planetary battle over the porous body of the earth. This is the battle of the Earth.

2019
https://www.vdb.org/artists/colectivo-los-ingr%C3%A1vidos
49702
Colectivo Los Ingrávidos
Activism

O.U.T. is a work documenting the emergence of computer games which train players to fight in cities among civilians, (Military Operations in Urban Terrain). O.U.T. contains sampled footage and machinima (stories told with video games) from five military simulation games. Following is a documentation of the performance, (Operation Urban Terrain), an urban wireless intervention by Anne-Marie Schleiner and an international cast of game expert and art activist collaborators.

2006
https://www.vdb.org/node/9957
Anne Marie
Schleiner
41151
Anne Marie Schleiner
Activism

An oblique, albeit powerful documentary that examines the current conditions, politics, and economics of South Lebanon. The tape focuses on the social, intellectual, and popular resistance to the Israeli occupation, as well as conceptions of "the land" and culture, and the imperiled identities of the Lebanese people. Simultaneously, the tape self-consciously engages in a critique of the documentary genre and its traditions.

1993
https://www.vdb.org/node/9632
Jayce
Salloum
40821
Jayce Salloum
Activism