Raindance: Media Primers

1971, 55:41, b&w, sound
1970, 23:07 min, b&w, sound
 
1971, 16:29 min, b&w, sound
 
1970, 16:05 min, b&w, sound
 

Raindance's Media Primers reflect the group's theories of alternative television and video, and their engagement with mass media, pop culture and the counter-culture. The themes addressed — media manipulation, the camera's role in modifying individual behavior — illustrate their experimentation with the technological and conceptual underpinnings of 1/2-inch portable video. Merging alternative video and mass media, Ira Schneider's Media Primer juxtaposes cultural indicators — television commercials, news footage, and Portapak documentation of countercultural events such as the Altamount rock concert. In Shamberg's Media Primer, rhetoric and gestures are skewered as he examines the political structure of alternative media. Paul Ryan's Proto Media Primer includes scenes of Abbie Hoffman awaiting the verdict from the Chicago 7 trial and ironic man-on-the-street interviews.

Media Primer (Schneider): Editor: Ira Schneider.

Proto Media Primer: Editor: Paul Ryan.

Media Primer (Shamberg): Editor: Michael Shamberg.

 

See also