LEARN / VIEW / DOCUMENT / STUDY

A MODEL FOR COLLECTIVE ACTION TODAY RESEARCH CRITICALLY NEEDED

INTERNATIONAL VIDEOLETTERS
1975 – 1977 “Our Tribal Notebooks” - Betty Brown, 1975
27 women’s video groups 17 communities across the globe
making (media) history
“Revolutionary!” – Joan Braderman, 1976 UPDATE: Oct 2016 First notice May 2014
“With the severe lack of any kind of daily reportage of substance of
issues that are critical to our survival as women, either on television or in print, the value of these
exchanges cannot be overemphasized” - Susan Milano, TeleVISIONS magazine Vol 3, No 4, Oct/Nov 1975.

INTERNATIONAL VIDEOLETTERS evolved from two feminist media conferences in 1975 (in the US) as an experiment
to increase communications and a news exchange among feminist communities. ½ hour tapes were produced bi-monthly
and mailed (sometimess bused) to groups within one of 3 ‘constellations' within the network. Subject matter ranged from
women elected to municipal office to community actions for Karen Silkwood; from women’s work at a scrimp factory to tours
of feminist cultural centers. Feedback was taped & incoporated into new tapes. Free-form, unfunded and voluntary, the
exchange lasted almost two years.
Maybe, as many as sixty ½ hour tapes were produced. Only three known tapes survived when this appeal started, May 2014.
Four more tapes have emerged as a result of this document as knowledge of the project circulated. Let's fiind more tapes!

Logo, above, by Carol Clement. Drawing

on left by J. English from a flyer
announcing VL screenings in Washington
DC. They were held at the Institute for
Policy Studies.

In NYC monthly screenings were held at

the Women's Interart Center (WIC). Carol
Anhein in 1978 had written into the WIC
CETA proposal a revival of VL. Lisa
Garfield who got hired into the position
made an effort to get VL going again, but
it never materialized.

THE GROUPS / Locations / Individuals

Auckland Women’s Video Group - New Zealand
Elizabeth Eastmond
Electra Women’s Media - Washington, DC
Feminist Communications – San Diego, CA
Feminist Studio Workshop – LA, CA Susan
Mogul
Feminist Videotape Collective – New York, NY
Joan Giummo
Haymarket/– Chicago, IL Sharon Karp
(formerly via Kartemquinn; she’s the “Kar” in the name)
Just Us Video Collective – San Francisco, CA
Mary Winegarden, Sue Scott, Joy Chamberlain
L.O.V.E. (Lesbians Organized for Video Experience) – NY,
NY – Betty Brown, Doris Lunden*
+ Toronto, Canada – Barbara Martineau (AKA Sara
Halprin*)
+ Boston, MA -- Terry Mase
Los Angeles Feminist Access Project – LA, CA
Janice Yudell
+ New York, NY – Carol Anshein
Open Video – New York, NY Tracy Ward*
Rochester Women’s Video Collective – Rochester, NY
Cathy Whalen*, Joan Vlaamynck
St. Clement’s Video Women – New York, NY Rena
Hansen
+ San Diego, CA – Eileen Griffin
Santa Cruz Media Collective –Santa Cruz, CA Ann
Weatherford
+ Seattle, Washington
Spectra Feminist Media Project – Washington, DC
Debbie George, Valle Jones, Janice Carrick, Sara Reitz
+ Portland, Oregon - Judith Seinburg
+ Tallahassee, FL
+ Tampa, FL – Mary Ellen Brown
Tucson Feminist Media Collective – Tucson, AZ Leslie
Carlson, Lydia Breen, Patricia McCarthy
Women Make Movies – New York, NY Ariel Dougherty
Women’s Interart Center – New York, NY Susan
Milano, Ann Volkes
Women’s Video Project – NY, NY – Phyllis Gomperts
Video Commune – New York, NY Carol Clement, Toni
Halton
* deceased
 Presently KNOWN SURVIVING TAPES: (more may be out there!)

Two are in the collection of Ariel Dougherty at Schlesinger Library :

1976 VIDEOLETTER (25 mins, B&W, EIAJ)
by Just Us Video ©1976 Interface Productions, Inc.
Jaime of Just Us introduces “the news”: A
clip in a studio for Margie Adam’s album
SONGWRITER with Linda Tillery, on drums;
the Lily Theatre troupe rehearsing
“Moonlighting”; and a concert, first, Cris
Williamson at the piano, followed by
Holly & Timothy Near, Meg Christian & Cris
performing SISTERSONG. Timothy gives an
empowering lesson in deaf signing.
1975 VIDEOLETTER (April) (25 mins, B&W,
EIAJ) by Sharon Karp
Shoot of a Cassie Culver concert in Chicago

The tapes can be privately streamed via Vimeo. Arrangements need to be coordinated via Dougherty
& Schlesinger Library. ( http://oasis.lib.harvard.edu/oasis/deliver/~sch01360 )

Two tapes reside at the GETTY RESEARCH INSTITUTE:

In 2005 these tapes came to the Getty via the Long Beach Museum of Art collection, a mammoth
artistic holding of 3,000 videos “including some that the artists themselves believed were lost.”1
1975 Feminist Studio Workshop March 1975 VIDEOLETTER by Spectra
VIDEOLETTER by Susan Mogul about the Feminist Media Project of DC about the Coalition of
Woman’s Building. A clip here: Labor Union Women and a demonstration in DC.
http://www.susanmogul.com/work/#femin http://primo.getty.edu/primo_library/libweb/action/dlDisplay.do
ist-studio-workshop-videoletter vid=GRI&afterPDS=true&institution=01GRI&docId=GETTY_R
OSETTAIE179450
www.getty.edu/research/library/
1200 Getty Center Dr, Suite 1100, Los Angeles, CA 90049-1688 tel. 310.440.7335

Two VLs have recently been unearthed at MEDIA BURN in Chicago:

VIDEOLETTER Apr 1975 by Santa Cruz Media Collective, political / feminist groups speaking at New
American Movement Symposium. http://mediaburn.org/video/international-videoletters-santa-cruz/
VIDEOLETTER May 1975 by Rochester Women's Video Collective: an interview with Reverend Merrill
Bittner about sexism in the church, and and interview with Deborah Granger about office gender politics.
http://mediaburn.org/video/videoletters-rochester-may-womans-video-collective/

One VL is confirmed in possession of Janice Yudall in LA. (She might have more?) Carol
Anshien is also looking to see if she has any tapes.

Ariel Dougherty has compiled this brief summary of the VIDEOLETTERS project to:
o flush out VL participants and other VIDEOLETTER tapes that might exist
o encourage presentation of known tapes & foster discussion of the project
o stimulate historians to study and write about this 'revolutionary' project
o inspire activists across the globe to create a contemporary version of
VL (so much more accessible now, due to the internet and streaming)
Ariel will talk with the JUST US VL (on DVD) in person and lead discussion. She will
outline how this remarkable experiment in video communications emerged within
the context of the “promise” of cable public access channels, but years ahead of
access coming to most US communities. Further, she will emphasize how then,
ArielCamera@gmail.com as well as even now, feminist stories need telling in our everyday lives.
575-740-5868 @MediaEquity Ariel’s papers at Schlesinger Library have a large file on the VIDEOLETTERS project.
http://oasis.lib.harvard.edu/oasis/deliver/~sch01216
www.arieldougherty.com/

1 https://www.getty.edu/news/press/center/long_beach_video_art.html