Cable Xcess

Kristin Lucas

1996, 4:48 min, color, sound

Writes Lucas: "Cable Xcess is a public service announcement/infommercial which informs viewers about the consequences of long term exposure to electromagnetic fields. I perform as both spokesperson and case study, transmitting a pirate broadcast through my body (body as satellite), educating...

Evil.9: (mmmfs) Fundamental Changes

Tony Cokes

2004, 3:22 min, color, sound

Evil.9 combines an Internet-circulated hip-hop music video by the Canadian-German artist Mocky with an Associated Press text outlining the effect of the U.S.A. Patriot Act on the basic rights of U.S. citizens. Cokes writes: "Our unwillingness to confront the implications of our acts and the consequences of our history represent failures to take responsibility."

My Desktop OS X 10.4.7

JODI

2007, 7:53 min, color, sound

STOP

Robert Buck

1985, 28 min, color, sound

The Nomadics

Ulysses Jenkins

1991, 12:29 min, color, sound

The Nomadics takes a sweeping overview of peoples from across the world and develops an intuitive and aesthetic sense of history which can posit a global identity amongst people of color.

TVTV Looks at the Oscars

TVTV

1976, 59 min, color, sound

TVTV's look at Hollywood's annual awards ritual mixes irreverent documentary with deadpan comedy. Lily Tomlin stars as a fictional character watching the televised Oscar ceremony at home. Tomlin, nominated for best supporting actress in Robert Altman's Nashville in 1975, is also seen as she attends the actual awards ceremony. With Tomlin serving as a fulcrum between insiders and outsiders, TVTV records the lead up to and letdown after the ceremony, revealing the vagaries of fame and stardom.

Video Girls and Video Songs for Navajo Sky

Shigeko Kubota

1973, 31:56 min, b&w and color, sound

Kubota narrates this surrealistic video diary of her month-long sojourn with a Navajo family on a reservation in Chinle, Arizona. She talks to the women as they cross the desert in a horse-drawn carriage to fetch water from the nearest well, and captures footage of tribal songs and dances, children's pranks and a local rodeo. Despite the language barrier between the Japanese Kubota and the English-speaking Native Americans, the artist befriends her subjects through sheer force of personality. Kubota relates to her subjects less like a documentary observer and more like a distant relative, with humor and affection.