Here Come the Videofreex

Jon Nealon and Jenny Raskin's documentary is built around decades-old grainy video. In 1967, Sony introduced the Video Rover—the first portable video camera—which inspired the pioneering filmmakers covered here to film everything they could (Nealon and Raskin intercut footage with recent interviews). David Cort and Parry Teasdale met at Woodstock, where they came to document the scene. Instead of capturing the live music, they shot interviews with audience members and medics. Afterward, Parry moved in with Cort and Mary Curtis Ratcliff in New York, and dubbed themselves Videofreex. When CBS executive Don West found out about their countercultural material, he offered to include it in news reports. For their first assignment, they covered the trial of the Chicago Eight, including an interview with defendant Abbie Hoffman. They also interviewed Black Panther leader Fred Hampton just weeks before his murder at the hands of law enforcement. Despite their best efforts, the relationship with CBS deteriorated, and the Freex became a collective with the addition of seven more people. They continued to shoot daily, even though they had no market for the footage. As one puts it, “It was necessary for us to go to these places where history was being made." The Freex filmed at women's liberation rallies, student strikes, and anti-war protests. On occasion, they also provided video projections for rock concerts, but for the most part their efforts didn't pay the bills, so they left the city for communal living in upstate New York where they would launch a public access TV station. An interesting documentary about a group who in many ways prefigure the citizen reporters who share video via social media, this is recommended. Aud: C, P. (K. Fennessy)