Current Projects
Reality Unreeled: The Really Real Unreal Reality of Real Reality TV Is reality television real? Is this the real life or is it just fantasy? Paper Tiger's summer 2009 interns are currently creating a show on reality television, to explore the social impacts and affective stereotypes of this explosive and exploitative genre that has taken TV networks by storm. The show will feature an interview with media critic, journalist and founder of Women in Media and News, Jennifer L. Pozner. Pozner will explain the social, economic and cultural reality of reality TV. The show will also include an interview with Robert Galinsky, founder and “principal” of the New York Reality TV School, where actors get trained how to act real. And the interns will try to make sense of all of those "Addicted to Beauty" posters through interviews with random subway passer-bys. Stay tuned for the release of the show in late Fall 2009. In the meantime, keep yourselves busy with this preview piece from the Paper Tiger archives with Herb Schiller on Geraldo and trash television—the unfortunate predecessor of contemporary “video nausea!!!”
____________________________________________________Paper Tiger Reads Working Women In this mock-local news program, Paper Tiger will consider whether the utopian vision of working women seen in the popular movies of the late 1980's has come to fruition. Through a mix of sketch comedy, video mash-up, news media critique, faux hidden camera segments, and interviews with working women and the organizations that promote them, Paper Tiger will examine the current state of women in the workforce.
____________________________________________________Surveilling Surveillance Paper Tiger Television is currently in production on a new show on surveillance culture. From government wiretapping to Facebook, GPS systems to credit card swipes, Google searches to nanny cams- how are you being watched? What are the implications of living in a surveillance culture? Are we safer or are our civil liberties threatened? Watch out for this new production coming out in summer 2009.
____________________________________________________Urban Environmentalism: DIY Living Green Paper Tiger introduces you to New Yorkers who have found ways to live more sustainably through DIY environmentalism. The creative and unique projects of these city dwellers show how living in urban settings allows rather than hinders their ability to live a green lifestyle. This show features segments on worm composting as an alternative to contributing to landfill waste, reusable bags for green markets, food foraging walks with Wildman Steve Brill, and the monthly “Really, Really Free” markets in Manhattan hosted by the In Our Hearts Collective. As an extra bonus, there is also an archival piece about the thriving yet threatened Lower East Side community gardens, documenting the residents’ struggle to save their gardens from the wrath of Mayor Giuliani’s gentrifying bulldozers. The show also includes a studio conversation between community members discussing how environmentalism, through resourcefulness and perseverance, can become a part of everyone's urban routine.
____________________________________________________Peace Pentagon Production(working title) For forty years, the building at 339 Lafayette, also known as the Peace Pentagon, has been home to countless peace and justice organizations in New York City. The AJ Muste Institute, the current owner of the building, has played a vital role in supporting the work of many committed and inspirational leaders of the social justice movement. A recent engineering survey revealed that the building is in need of significant repairs, therefore this stronghold of national and international activism and organizing now faces an uncertain future. Members of Paper Tiger Television, which has been housed in the Peace Pentagon since 1986, are working to produce a video that will raise awareness of the building’s significant history and the need to repair, renovate and green the building. The current situation presents a unique opportunity to transform this landmark building into a powerful and sustainable cornerstone of progressive ideals, while simultaneously making a prominent statement against the consumer excess rapidly engulfing the neighborhood around it.
____________________________________________________NEW Studio Show 2008 will see the long overdue return of the Paper Tiger TV studio Shows! We are going back to our fun and funky roots! Reviving the pioneering work of PTTV’s early studio shows, the video collective plans to produce spontaneous, creative new episodes of our eccentric television show that provide media and cultural analysis for broadcast on cable access television. Stay tuned and brace yourself.
ACCEPTING SUBMISSIONS! Any video producers looking to submit shorts (anywhere from 30 seconds to 5 minutes) to be a part of our studio show, please contact us at info(at)papertiger.org. Topics slated for the first season include gentrification, election coverage, social networking, surveillance and corporatization of the underground culture.
____________________________________________Gentrification in Sunset Park Paper Tiger is collaborating with youth in Brooklyn to create a video on how gentrification and development is affecting Sunset Park residents. Rents and property values have skyrocketed over the past few years in Sunset Park, a mostly Latino and Asian working class neighborhood in Brooklyn. People are being displaced as condominiums are being built. This video will be used to inform people about what is happening and to inspire the community to take action. Gentrification is happening in communities everywhere, and we want this video to be seen in a global context. Paper Tiger will be teaching the youth how to use a camera, edit, and construct a video while the youth are teaching our collective what they see happening in their community.
____________________________________________________Archive Project We've launched an ambitious archiving project! The Paper Tiger archive includes over 320 shows and hundreds of related documents, items, and ephemera. These shows and documents not only reflect the work of many prominent media scholars, activists, cultural critics, and artists of the last 25 years, but also that of activists from social justice movements whose struggle might otherwise have gone undocumented. As a result, the Paper Tiger archive houses one of the most unique and important historical media collections, and encompasses critical components of the evolution of public access television, video art, media advocacy, visual literacy, and video activism. There are two components to the current project: • preservation of tapes (video masters) • organization, catalogue, and preservation of historically important documents, items, and related ephemera (for example, photographs, props from shows, meeting minutes, etc.) The project is currently in the assessment stage.
____________________________________________Military Myths In summer 2001 (before 9/11), Paper Tiger created a counter-recruitment video called Military Myths in partnership with ROOTS (then, the youth component of the War Resisters League.) Since it was produced, the video has been used in at least 500 national community organizations, peace groups, schools, and churches to support Counter Recruitment. Several organizations use the video as a center point of their workshops including Ya Ya Network, NYCoRE, CCCO and the War Resisters League Youth and the Military Program. By popular demand, PTTV updated the video in 2006 with more recent statistics, Spanish subtitles and added a curriculum giude and counter-recruitment resources. Thanks to a generous grant from ADCO, Paper Tiger is now engaged in a concerted outreach campaign to continue to spread the word about Military Myths and further the impact of this valuable resource! For more information about this project, or for help organizing a screening near you, email info@papertiger.org.
Military Myths is an organizing tool to educate the public on the military's agressive recruitment of low income youth and youth of color. Featuring interviews with youth, activists and people of color who have served in military, the video gives an alternative viewpoint exposing the tactics military representatives use to engage youth - and the video exposes the reality of military service. (It's not all trips around the world and a free education.) The producers contrast media representations of war and military life with the personal experiences of veterans who have gone to war. Interviews with activists and students are also presented along with statistics from the Veterans Administration, CCCO, SLDN, and recent Pentagon studies that lay clear the myths of military life. Check out our online catalog to order your copy today! Reasons to Organize a Screening: We call on all youth and youth advocates to organize community screenings of Military Myths in your communities. Contact Paper Tiger to see if your group qualifies to recieve a free or discounted screening copy for your event. As the military becomes further engaged with the Middle East, young people in our communities are being aggressively recruited. It's time that they heard another side of the story and make an educated decision before enlisting. Encourage your local public television and cable access stations to re-broadcast this program See a trailer for Military Myths.