Paper Tiger is proud to present ‘Art, Activism, and Analysis,’ a curated series highlighting the work of one of the great masterpieces—some people say THE masterpiece—of modern alternative media production: Paper Tiger TV. Check out the series promo

From March to July 2010, Paper Tiger TV and Free Speech TV will present 'Art, Activism, and Analysis.' The series will be broadcast on Saturdays on Free Speech TV (Dish Network channel 9415) at 7 PM EST starting on March 27, 2010. Shows will be re-broadcast on Sundays at 5 AM EST. The entire series will be broadcast twice; the first broadcast will begin March 27, and the second will begin June 5. Broadcast dates and times for this series are as follows.

March 27 and 28 (Paper Tiger Reads PTTV; Herb Schiller Reads the New York Times)
April 3 and 4 (Richie Perez Watches 'Fort Apache: The Bronx'; Joan Does Dynasty)
April 10 and 11 (Donna Haraway Reads 'National Geographic' on Primates; Ted Koppel's Long March)
April 17 and 18 (Luis R. Beltran Tunes in to Bolivian Miners' Radio; Call It What It Is: Domestic Violence and the Media)
April 24 and 25 (America's Least Wanted; Subverting the Media)
May 1 and 2 (Fenced Out; Restating the Union)
May 8 and 9 (Class Dismissed)

June 5 and 6 (Paper Tiger Reads PTTV; Herb Schiller Reads the New York Times)
June 12 and 13 (Richie Perez Watches 'Fort Apache: The Bronx'; Joan Does Dynasty)
June 19 and 20 (Donna Haraway Reads 'National Geographic' on Primates; Ted Koppel's Long March)
June 26 and 27 (Luis R. Beltran Tunes in to Bolivian Miners' Radio; Call It What It Is: Domestic Violence and the Media)
July 3 and 4 (America's Least Wanted; Subverting the Media)
July 10 and 11 (Fenced Out; Restating the Union)
July 17 and 18 (Class Dismissed)

In 1981 a group of artists, activists and academics in New York City launched a public access TV show that would forever change the face of media history. They challenged the legitimacy of the corporate media in both content and form. In contrast to the slick, prohibitively expensive and superficial mainstream media, Paper Tiger productions were handmade, spontaneous, sincere, and exceedingly low budget. They pioneered a DIY aesthetic that encouraged viewers to take the power of the media from the corporations and put it squarely in the hands of the people.
Paper Tiger Opening
Paper Tiger is still produced via a non-hierarchical collective process; hence it remains distinctive in the television landscape. Every new member of the collective contributes their creative, organizational, production, and intellectual skills to organically create something that shapes the moment in time, something that speaks to our people’s struggle. Paper Tiger is there for it all: the analysis, the fight, the spectacle, and the fun.

But with the advent of new technologies (the Internet, YouTube, and with the accessibility of digital recording devices) has Paper Tiger maintained its relevance? Of course, we believe the answer is an unequivocal YES! Today the need to deconstruct the daily barrage of spectacle and performances put on by the wealthy, politicians, and their corporate sweethearts, is more important than ever.

For activists and independent media makers, it is especially crucial that we understand our history; therefore ‘Art, Activism, and Analysis’ presents a chronological look at how the content and style of the collective's work has changed since 1981. It covers a wide range of topics from racism, classism, DIY media, domestic violence, the prison-industrial complex, media conglomeration and displacement... just to name a few. Tune in!

Contact PTTV for more information.

Complete Series is as follows:

2007 Paper Tiger Television Reads Paper Tiger Television TRT:29:30
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 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 agenda 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. Over the years, thousands have enjoyed the intelligent, irreverent, ultra-low-budget antics of PTTV. Paper Tiger Reads Paper Tiger TelevisionPTTV produced Paper Tiger Reads Paper Tiger Television not only out of love and respect for its history of creating radical critiques of mass culture and politics, but from a desire to continue supporting and providing innovative leadership for 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,historians and current and past Tigers, including Dee Dee Halleck, George Stoney and Dierdre Boyle is designed to be a catalyst for conversations on new directions in creative use of the media.

1981 Herb Schiller Reads New York Times: 712 Pages of Waste; The Sunday TimesTRT:29:30
Herb Schiller in top form provides a quick and quippy deconstruction of the wasteful excess of the NY Times. The NY Times sets the agenda of what to think about and gives us the standard around which to organize our lives. One of the first Paper Tiger Television shows… ever! This is one of the first six shows that started it all. Broadcast live on public access television in NYC 1981. Communications expert Herb Schiller dissects the New York Times newspaper of record in these classic PTTV episodes. Schiller is the perfect blend of level-headed professorial presentation of the facts and the irreverent media industry myth smashing, a balance that is the hallmark of Paper Tiger productions. A biting analysis of the New York Times’ cultural, political and economical hegemony in setting the agenda that shapes the news and culture industry. Shot in both black and white and color video. Do you know where your brains are?

1983 Richie Perez Watches "Fort Apache: The Bronx"TRT:29:30
In this show NYC activist Ritchie Pérez gives an in-depth look at the campaign to counteract the negative depictions of Puerto Rican and Blacks in the film Fort Apache: The Bronx. The campaign challenged the right of filmmakers to use racist and stereotypical images and to exploit the poverty conditions in the ghetto. Fort Apache: the Bronx dealt with real issues in the Puerto Rican and Black community such as poverty, police brutality, housing abandonment and decaying communities but failed to show the root causes and instead blamed the problems on the community. The campaign as described by Pérez proved that it is possible to have a unified, collective action against media racism. A clear description of the media’s power to amplify and perpetuate harmful stereotypes is followed by an overview of the movie industry, and how the increasing media conglomeration is connected to banks and to the cable industry. Pérez gives an overview of the tactics that were used in the campaign, including boycotts, breaking media blackouts to get media attention, garnering a broad cross section of multi-cultural support, targeting key players and most importantly creating the context in which media needs to be judged by individuals in the public for racism, sexism and classism. This show is an ideal primer for activists looking to directly confront the media and provides a historical context for current media reform work.

1985 Joan Does DynastyTRT:29:30
Hampshire College professor and stand-up theorist Joan Braderman takes on power and desire in TV's campiest series. "Joan Does Dynasty," a classic in feminist media deconstruction, is a hilarious look at the materialistic 80's in the context of the ordinary working person's life. Superimposing herself over portions of "Dynasty" and into the bedrooms, office suites and maids' quarters of the super rich, Braderman asks, "Why do Joan Does Dynasty100 million people in 78 countries welcome this department store of dressed-to-kill aliens into their homes every week?" Co-Director Manual Delanda. Screened at the Whitney Museum of American Art (2007) and New Museum of Contemporary Art in NYC (2008).

1987 Donna Haraway Reads "The National Geographic" on PrimatesTRT:29:30
How does the "cultured" gorilla, i.e. Koko, come to represent universal man? Author and cultural critic Donna Haraway untangles the web of meanings, tracing what gets to count as nature, for whom and when, and how much it costs to produce nature at a particular moment in history for a particular group of people. A feminist journey through the anthropological junglescape. Haraway is a leading thinker about people's love and hate relationship with machines. Her ideas have sparked an explosion of debate in areas as diverse as primatology, philosophy, and developmental biology. She is the author of Crystals, Fabrics, and Fields: Metaphors of Organicism in Twentieth-Century Developmental Biology (1976), Primate Visions: Gender, Race, and Nature in the World of Modern Science (1989), Simians, Cyborgs, and Women : The Reinvention of Nature (1991), and Modest_Witness@Second_Millennium. FemaleMan©Meets_OncoMouse™ (1997).

1989 From Woodstock to Tiananmen Square: Ted Koppel¹s Long MarchTRT:29:30
Chock full o' glamorous, very special low-tek effects, this video examines the post-massacre "spin" that Koppel & Co. put on the 1989 uprising of students and workers in mainland China. Trickster/anchor Dan Rabbit dismantles Ted's tract, exposing the embedded pro-state bias and how Ted and his cohorts manipulated the representation of the events to suit the needs of their agenda. Riveting tomfoolery!

1991 Luis R. Beltran Tunes in to Bolivian Miners' RadioTRT:29:30
South American scholar Luis Beltran describes the creation and activities of the radical Bolivian miners' radio station poised in the Andes Mountains. For twenty years this radio station has been the voice of miners, peasants and working people. Beltran cites this example as a model for people empowering themselves and fighting for their right to access communications resources. Truly inspiring! Produced in collaboration with Paper Tiger Columbus.

1993 Call It What It Is: PTTV West Looks at Domestic Violence and the MediaTRT:29:30
By establishing a relationship between personal experiences with domestic violence and the media's coverage of this issue, this tape challenges the viewer to examine the social forces which contribute to violence against women and children in the home. This video explores the number of ways the media's representation of domestic violence stories tend to isolate and obscure the seriousness of a social epidemic which causes more injury to women than all accidents, rapes and muggings combined.

1995 America's Least WantedTRT:29:30
Lock your doors, buy 'The Club' and move to Connecticut: crime is everywhere, and according to your local media purveyors, it's getting worse. But is it? "America's Least Wanted" takes a bite out of crime hysteria by exposing the media's fetish for high-profile crime stories. Let Paper Tiger and Robin Andersen take you on a America's Least Wantedrare trip through the mean streets of corporate gangland, where necktied hoodlums get away with mass murder while a disinterested media and justice system turn a blind eye. Learn how prisons have become a high-stakes profit-making venture and why the Crime Bill is only the latest in ineffective and repressive anti-crime legislation. Don't miss an action-packed minute. Robin Andersen, Ph.D., teaches Communication and Media Studies at Fordham University and is the Director of the Peace and Justice Studies Program. She has written numerous journal articles and book chapters on media issues and the influence of TV and Advertising on American society. She is the author of "Consumer Culture and TV Programming", published by Westview Press and editor of "Critical Studies in Media Commercialism" by Oxford University Press. Her book titled, "Media and War: Censorship, Propaganda and Myth in the Information Age" was published in 2006. She is frequently interviewed as an expert source on media issues for radio, television and newspaper reporting. She is also featured in numerous educational documentaries.

1998 Subverting the Media: A Guide To Low Tech Information ActivismTRT:29:30
From stencils to 'zines to graffiti and poster art, "Subverting the Media" takes us on a trip through the alternative media scene. East Harlem muralist James De La Vega, anti-patriarchal poster collective "Sister Serpents", Bronx-based graffiti group, "Tats Cru" and Sabrina Margarita Sandata, a feminist zinester, challenge social and cultural stereotypes through their work. The program explores the potential everyone has to create their own media, examines the process for creating the message, and demonstrates how to go out and make your own media.

2001 Fenced OutTRT:29:30
Fenced Out documents the fight for the Christopher St. pier, a long-established hangout and safe haven for New York City’s youth of color and lower-income, homeless, lesbian, gay bisexual, transgender, questioning and two-spirited youth. In the summer of 2000, development for a state park began “fencing out” the kids, with support from residents of nearby waterfront properties. “You are lowering the property value,” notes one police officer bluntly. The video examines the clash between the groups that claim ownership of the pier, from the perspective of the youths who feel it is the only place where they belong. The documentary includes interviews with “pierets” about how important the pier is in their lives, and with LGBTQ activists about the history of the piers and their connection to the gay liberation movement of the 60’s. It explores how the struggle to save the pier connects to a larger historical and social movement, and develops a plan of action to save them. Produced by Paper Tiger Television in collaboration with New Neutral Zone and FIERCE.

2003 Restating the UnionTRT:29:30
While well-rehearsed, well-choreographed, and written better than most Hollywood movies, George Bush''s 2003 State of the Union Address somehow dropped the ball in the fact-checking department. Paper Tiger''s "Restating the Union Address" attempts to correct the record. Featuring pop-ups correcting George''s most obvious blunders, it also includes interviews with scores of anti-war demonstrators in Manhattan, Washington D.C. and the Bronx. It is rounded out with a counter military recruitment segment. All-in-all a fabulous 28 minutes to counter war hysteria. Restating the Union also features a segment from the PTTV/Impact Coalition/Bronx Defenders production "War and the Economy" where High School students from the Bronx, Manhattan and Brooklyn look at how the threat of war with Iraq would economically impact the communities of New York.

2004 Class Dismissed TRT:29:30
Class Dismissed provides a critical look at how U.S. history is taught in high school, at the myths that reduce the complexity of history into simple soundbites, and the information that never seems to make it onto the textbook pages. How can we alter this system to address the limitations of the current curriculum, to allow students to find their own place in history and the world today, to inspire them to become active learners and AAA Seriesagents for social change? This video takes a beginning step by looking at the textbook industry, standardized testing, the lack of race and class analysis in textbooks, and the teacher’s role in introducing a range of perspectives into the classroom. Featuring authors Howard Zinn (A People’s History of the United States) and James Loewen (Lies My Teacher Told Me), New York public high school students, textbook industry insiders, and teachers, this is a must-see video for any student of American History.

This series made possible through the generous support of Manhattan Neighborhood Network, New York City Department of Cultural Affairs and New York State Council on the Arts.