Rebel Video : The Video Movement of the 1970s and 1980s

Media activism in the analogue age: a unique testimonial of the video movement in Switzerland and the UK of the 1970s and 1980s and its lasting effects.

During the 1970s and 1980s, the independent community media and various youth movements across Europe inspired and abetted each other. The young activists discovered the video tape as a medium and as a means to express their protesting mood and concerns. The easily produced moving images in videos soon also became a weapon in the political and communication fights for the autonomous culture spaces the movement demanded in many countries. Videos were participative productions, made almost in real time and fast.This appropriation of video technology as a means of two-way communication between sender and recipient also proved a key step towards the digital age. Today, consumers, citizens, and professionals not only receive moving images and audio documents, anyone almost anywhere can produce and broadcast such pieces at no expense. The young activist-directors of the 1970s and 1980s went beyond dreaming of such a development. They explored it and experimented within small networks.Rebel Video portrays protagonists of this activist movement in London, Basel, Berne, Lausanne, and Zurich. It documents which topics and concerns these creative rowdies picked up and the lasting effect their work has had up to today. Richly illustrated and completed with brief essays by expert authors on specific aspects of film documentary and video art, the book demonstrates and illuminates the significance and manifold facets of the community media movement.