Concurrent and in conspiracy with the movement now understood as the LA Rebellion, was a group of guerrilla video makers, who, with unfettered access to an hour of public access television developed a tapestry program rich with Third World Filmmaking, documentary, experimental video art, interview, and avant-garde theater. Under the loose supervision of experimental filmmaker Shirley Clarke,View became a vital platform for creative expression, political filmmaking, and exploration of this emerging video medium, all available to the unsuspecting Los Angeles cable access public. Purchasing worn second-hand tapes from official broadcasters and toiling late nights over the VTR, the UCLA student cable access program View is a forgotten cultural flashpoint, deserving of a new wave of appreciation and flowers.

Over several screenings in partnership with the UCLA Film & Television Archive, T.A.P.E. is unearthing the three-quarter-inch tapes which depict a rich history of this remarkably inventive show. In conjunction with T.A.P.E.’s programming for our annual Home Video Day: Music Edition, we are partnering with FTVA & Whammy! Analog Media to show new digitizations of View segments featuring the burgeoning Punk & New Wave culture in LA.

‍

Before punk went mainstream and New Wave hit the charts, a team of LA video artists were broadcasting the cultural wave straight onto local television sets. UCLA’s Film & Television School produced some of the leading filmmakers of the ever-intersecting DIY music and film scenes, where View served as a laboratory for creating and exhibiting experimental works. The program features student work from Abbe Wool, writer of Sid & Nancy (1986), a canonical text reflecting on the punk movement. It also includes a short documentary about the New Wave scene and its splintering from Punk entitled Be Modern, Change Now, Get a Haircut, featuring legendary icons Taquila Mockingbird and Atila Sikora. Additional footage from View’s band featurettes, including a long form interview with Mid-West New Wave darlings (you’ll have to see it to believe it!).

‍

‍

‍

‍

‍

7:30 DOORS
8:00 SCREENING