People's Video Theater Reel

Contains excerpts from: Women's Liberation March NYC, Gay Pride March NYC, Young Lords Occupy Manhattan Church, Native American Action at Plymouth Rock

People's Video Theater (PVT) wrote that "the people are the information; media processes can reach out to their needs," (Ken Marsh, 1971). PVT's use of video as social feedback typically involved carrying portapaks in the streets of New York City where they conducted video polls and documented public actions. People participating in street tapings would be invited to their video "theater" to watch and discuss the tapes, taking advantage of a kind of immediacy impossible with film. PVT documented historic public demonstrations by liberation movements in 1970-1971. Sampled here are the first Women's Liberation March in New York, the first Gay Pride March, the Young Lords' (a Puerto Rican liberation group) protest occupation of a Manhattan church, and an action taken by Native Americans at Plymouth Rock on the 350th anniversary of hte pilgrims' landing.

This reel is only available on Surveying the First Decade: Volume 2.