Videofreex VIDEOS ON THE WEB!
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“Here Come the Videofreex” (78 min, 1969-78/2015)
Indy feature doc directed by Jenny Raskin & Jon Nealon
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Videofreex Pirate TV on the air! (actually on demand!)
21st-century edits of classic Freex videos -
MAYDAY 1971 RAW (66 min, 1971/2017, by Mayday Video)
Feel the fervor of 1970s activism at this impactful peace
protest. By Videofreex & 15 other early indy videomakers.
For DVDs, public screenings, art/educational acquisitions: info[at]Videofreex.com
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For current Freex news & events: MoreArtistsMovies.com/news
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Videofreex 2019: OUR 50th YEAR!
- Videofreex 50th Anniversary Multi-Platform Year-Long Celebration!
Click here for details, including 2 weeks at Maple Tree Farm!
- “Maple Tree Farm Report: Participatory Media Roots & Branches”
Click here to view the Report (PDF)
Thirty-page illustrated report compares Videofreex and the earliest indy video, a 1970s leading edge medium, with contemporary digital media and indy production groups. Authored by five Videofreex, other early videomakers, and younger activist digital media artists during a two-day convening.

Made possible in part with funds from NYSCA EMF in Partnership with Wave Farm Media Arts Assistance Fund.

- “Videofreex Dance Party for a Change!” (2 hours)
A musical manifesto with 30 hot dance tracks made for movement (and for the Movement) by Videofreex DJ Skip B.
Click here for playlist with 30 song titles & artists
Click here for 2-hour Dance Party audio playlist
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Meet the Videofreex
• Start-up since 1969 • Incubator in the utopian 1970s • Indy video pioneers
• Earliest video adopters, video artists, camera journalists • Pirate TV broadcasters

Videofreex was one of the pioneer production groups that formed when consumer video was first introduced in the late 1960s. The early start-up and incubator of early users in the new medium included David Cort, Parry Teasdale, Mary Curtis Ratcliff, Nancy Cain, Chuck Kennedy, Davidson Gigliotti, Skip Blumberg, Carol Vontobel, Bart Friedman, Ann Woodward, and others. Over their nine years together, they produced thousands of videotapes, which capture the utopian 1970s alternate culture and protest movements, plus installations and multimedia events; trained hundreds of videomakers; operated one of the earliest media centers and a pirate TV station, Lanesville TV, at Maple Tree Farm in the heart of the Catskill Mountains. For more information please visit Videofreex.com and VideofreexPirateTV.vhx.tv
What they say about the Videofreex
THEN:
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
and NOW:
Self-described “electronic Johnny Appleseeds,” the Freex were precursors for… video journalism, reality TV, music videos, Saturday Night Live-style sketch comedy, crowd sourcing, and art collectives.
What we take for granted, they pioneered.
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.”
videoheads in Amsterdam now missing the head of Videoheads Mr. Jack Moore who passed away in Apr. 2014 We hope to save the collection of early Videos that we all had made. For any reply to us use my email to answer back to us.
Very exciting to see
Who has a setup for Up-rezzing, editing and archiving today???
There are places for each depending on budget and location. Editing you can do in your own studio. Restoring can be pricey – depending on tape condition. Videofreex have used several different “labs” including the very best is Maurice Schechter who is now setting up a full service transfer, restoration and inspection facility on Long Island. mauricsch@cs.com Tell him please that Videofreex sent you.
Maurice Schechter just opened a restoration lab in Glen Head NY.
I have assembled a studio in my home to play and digitize EIAJ-1, U-Matic, Beta I, VHS, etc.
For example, I produced this on tape in 1993, digitized its just now in 2019: https://vimeo.com/322717980
Lately, Røde has brought back the 1970s alternative media revolution with their iXLR product. I show how I use it here: https://vimeo.com/315827239
These videos and more are featured on my web site openeyesvideo.com
Oh, and I have one of the books by Videofreex (now in storage as I’m in the process of moving) that I bought back when I was at Goddard College in 1973-1975 when some of your crew came to visit campus.