Paper Tiger Television

Paper Tiger Television (based in NY) has been creating fun, funky, hard-hitting, investigative, compelling and truly alternative media since 1981. The programs produced at PTTV have inspired media-savvy community productions and activism around the world. Their archive includes shows that provide critical analysis of media, educate about the communications industry and highlight issues that are absent from mainstream information sources. Through the distribution of their short documentary programs, media literacy/video production workshops, community screenings and grassroots advocacy, PTTV works to expose and challenge the corporate control of media. They believe that the bias and misrepresentation of issues in mainstream media make it critical to include diverse perspectives in the process of making media. PTTV strives to increase awareness of how media can be used to affect social change. A public that can strategically and creatively use the media is necessary for a more equitable and healthy democracy.

Paper Tiger Television (PTTV) is a non-profit organization made up of volunteers and run as a collective in response to systems of hierarchical power.

They are always seeking new members and collaborators, information about which can be found at their website: papertiger.org.

History

An early innovator in video art and public access television of the early 80’s, PTTV developed a unique, handmade, irreverent aesthetic that experimented with the television medium by combining art, academics, politics, performance and live television. PTTV, founded on the ideal that freedom of speech through access to the means of communication is essential in a democratic society, regularly exposed the hidden agendas of the mainstream media and questioned the powerful grip of corporate influence on media content to become the first nationally disseminated public access television program. Dee Dee Halleck, one of the original founders of PTTV comments “It is one thing to critique the mass media and rail against their abuses. It is quite another to create viable alternatives.” PTTV has been recognized for critical analysis of information sources and for being on the cutting edge of video with screenings, exhibits and installations in museums and galleries around the world. In many cases, PTTV productions are invaluable video documentation of the ideas and insights of some of our nation’s most notable media critics and public intellectuals. The PTTV archive houses one of the most unique and important historical alternative media collections, encompassing critical components of the evolution of public access television, video art, video activism, and media reform. PTTV influenced and supported grassroots media activist organizations through providing an innovative model for community media spurring the global development of a do-it-yourself (DIY) community media movement. Today’s burgeoning independent media movement can trace its roots directly to the network of media activists developed by PTTV throughout the 1980s. With the recent explosion of Internet video distribution, DIY media has grown from an isolated endeavor to an increasingly powerful international phenomenon. Now is the ideal time to look back at the pioneering work of a New York City video collective that began making it’s anarchic, improvisational commentary and satire on modern media culture 25 years ago. Over the years, thousands have enjoyed the intelligent, irreverent, ultra-low-budget antics of PTTV. PTTV produced Paper Tiger Reads Paper Tiger Television not only out of love and respect for it’s history of creating radical critiques of mass culture and politics, but from a desire to continue supporting and providing innovative leadership to documentary filmmakers, artists, media literacy educators and social justice media movements around the world. The jubilant mosaic of archival footage, hand-crafted animations, video shorts and interviews with media critics and historians as well as current and past Tigers, including Dee Dee Halleck, Jesse Drew, George Stoney, Dierdre Boyle and Mary Feaster is designed to be a catalyst for conversations on new directions in creative use of the media.

Programs

Visit the Paper Tiger Television website for the full catalog of video productions. Videos can be ordered via their website as well.

External links

* [http://www.papertiger.org/ Paper Tiger Television's Home Page]
* [http://www.papertigertv.blogspot.com/ Paper Tiger Bloggi-Vision] Paper Tiger TV's Videoblog
* [http://www.runmuki.com/paul/writing/papertiger.html Paper Tiger Television Review] 1992 exhibit at San Francisco Art Institute
* [http://youtube.com/watch?v=cEe0EHoE7I4 Dueling Dancers at Paper Tiger TV's 25 Year Anniversary] Video clip of performance from 25 Year Anniversary
* [http://www.vdb.org/smackn.acgi$artistdetail?PAPERTIGER Paper Tiger Television] in the [http://www.vdb.org/ Video Data Bank]