Not Channel Zero: The Revolution, Television
Streaming Exhibition and Talk with Founders and Members of the Acclaimed Video Collective Black Planet Productions
In the early 1990s, a collective of Black videomakers joined forces to produce NOT CHANNEL ZERO, an alternative television program using low-end, accessible technology and minimal budgets — sometimes only fifty dollars. For three years, the Black Planet Productions collective produced regular programming for Manhattan Neighborhood Network (MNN) on the anti-Gulf war movement, homophobia in communities of color, police brutality, sexism, and urban issues in Black and Latine communities.
The NOT CHANNEL ZERO series were exhibited at the Wexner Center for the Arts, the Whitney Museum, multiple film festivals, and very recently as part of the Museum of Modern Art’s exhibit SIGNALS. Ray Smith of the New York Newsday wrote, “The show has a hyperactive style that often jolts viewers into a stimulative, occasionally witty visual escapade.”
Third World Newsreel and The Documentary Forum at the City College of New York are pleased to welcome the founders and members of the Black Planet Productions collective for a virtual talk on August 2nd. Before the talk, audiences who register can stream six episodes of the NOT CHANNEL ZERO series from July 31st-August 2nd.
During the talk, audiences will hear from folks who energized minds and movements in the pre-internet era, the lessons learned from their efforts, the cultural excitement of their work, the rebounding of progressive media collectives, and our current situation where wars continue and multiple forces are trying to dismantle the hard-earned social justice gains of the past 50 years. Black Planet Production members will be in conversation with Erica Kermani, a member of the new media collective Shadow Work Media.
This event is part of the Organizing and Filmmaking Then and Now series.
To register visit Eventbrite here: bit.ly/3Dg8eNE.
Not Channel Zero website: https://twn.org/twnpages/exhibitions/not-channel-zero.aspx
Not Channel Zero Press Kit: https://twn.org/catalog/guides/not-channel-zero-press-kit.pdf