Selected Tapes 1971 (1971)

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Synopsis by Brian Whitener

Founded by Ken Marsh and Eliot Glass in the late 1960s, the People's Video Theater was a radical attempt to alter the nature of video recording and reporting. Taking portapaks onto the streets of New York City, Marsh and Glass interviewed people, recorded demonstrations and other events of social note and then invited the participants to view the footage in their "video theater". Featured on this tape are a number of "first" protests. In each protesters mention "changing the image" of their group as one of the goals of the protest, which marks the importance of representation and the ability of video to affect this. The tape contains: the first Women's Liberation March ever held in New York, the first Gay Pride march, the occupation of a church by the Young Lords (a Puerto Rican liberation group), and a re-enactment of the Plymouth Rock landing by Native Americans protesters on the 350th anniversary of the Europeans arrival.