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?
