The Videofreex was one of the pioneer production groups that formed when consumer video was first introduced in the late 1960s. Over their nine-plus years together, they produced thousands of videotapes, installations and multimedia events and trained hundreds of videomakers in the brand new video medium.
They went on to found the country’s first pirate TV station and capture some of the most up-close and memorable records of the social movements of the 1960s and 70s.
In 2007, Chicago’s Video Databank launched the Videofreex Archive as a source for the group’s early videotape coverage of this unique era of social and cultural change. Two recent books and an upcoming movie continue to tell the tale.
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“The Freex are the most production oriented of the video groups… in terms of finished, cleanly edited,
high quality tape, which is generally quite entertaining, the Videofreex are clearly the best.”
- Michael Shamberg, Guerilla Television, 1971, Holt, Rhinehart & Winston
“A bunch of struggling crazies.” - New Yorker Talk of the Town, December 12, 1970
We’re all Videofreex!
Videofreex are legendary- would have loved to connect with this group back in the day but it just didn’t happen…i think i was too independent! Shamberg’s book is legendary but i never read it. I did, however, videotape Salvador Dali.
Good to hear from you, Aristedes! Very honored by the designation of “legendary.”