Self-Reflexive Video

2005

This three-DVD collection features 18 titles, 10 years of videography, and over six hours of material by Donigan Cumming.

"Cumming has said that it is his intention to question, "the myth of the innocent, invisible photographic witness." Borrowing from what he calls, "experimental ethnography," Cumming consciously positions himself not only as investigator, but also participant, caretaker and friend. Thus his examinations of human frailty are always tempered by a compassion that stems from his own involvement in the situations he records."

Martine Syms, Basma Alsharif, Matt Wolf, Akram Zaatari, Rosa Barba, Nicolas Provost, Doug Ischar, Steve Reinke

Future-Past-Present: A Journey Through the Twenty-Tens So Far

2017

VDB TV: Decades
2010s: Future-Past-Present

An original program for VDB TV: Decades curated by Omar Kholeif.

George Barber

Living Like a Nike T-Shirt

2015

"It was as if I was living by the Nike slogan Just Do It."
— George Barber

Tom Rubnitz, Ann Magnuson

Made For TV

1984

Combining Rubnitz’s skillful manipulation of the familiar “look” of TV shows with an extraordinary range of characters, performer Ann Magnuson convincingly impersonates the array of female types seen on TV in a typical broadcast day. From glitzy to drab, from friendly housewife to desperate evangelist, Magnuson is a one-woman universe appearing on every channel, the star of every program—giving her all as the chameleon woman who is always on display.

Virginia Valadao, Video in the Villages

Morayngava

1997

Morayngava: the “design of things.” Yngiru: the box of the spirits, the films, just like xaman dreams. This is how the Asurini define video, which has just arrived in their village. After discovering that it is possible to store their images, the old men lament that they never stored images of their ancestors and decided to register the initiation of a xaman, a tradition threatened by new times.

Directed by Virginia Valadão and Regina Müller.

In Assurini with English subtitles.

George Kuchar

The Pagan Angel

1998

A bird of paradise is pruned for the lens of a Bolex camera as my Sony camcorder documents the film and video scene out here in fog-bound Frisco. A look behind the haze that blocks from view new and old faces as they frame within the medium of choice the tidbits we eventually devour with our eyes.

George Kuchar

Tower of Terror

2007

A brief glimpse into a "day at the office" in an edifice dedicated to personal expressions of the inner eye. I subjective view of twisted perspectives reflecting the morbid dreads of he who walks among the talented throng.

VDB TV: Decades

2017

VDB TV: Decades is a unique series that casts a distinctive eye over the development of video as an art form from the early 1970s to the present, produced to mark the 40th anniversary of the Video Data Bank. Each program in this five-disc box set was curated by an inspiring artist, scholar, or media arts specialist focusing on a specific decade. Programmers surveyed the VDB collection to create personal, distinctive, and relevant programs, accompanied by original essays and texts, available as ROM content on each program disc.

Vincent Carelli, Video in the Villages

Video Cannibalism

1995

Video is introduced to the Enauênê Nauê Indians, a group still isolated in the North of Mato Grosso. An outgoing group, they respond with a surprising high-spirited performance that includes a good measure of clowning around and a re-enactment of an attack they suffered at the hands of their neighbors, the Cinta-Larga, not long ago. After growing accustomed to watching movies on video, they decide to produce their own. Directed and photographed by Vincent Carelli. In Enauenê-Nauê with English subtitles.

Ilene Segalove

Whatever Happened to MY Future?

2012

Repurposing an ancient confessional video diary made about 40 years ago, this 11-minute narrative creates a poignant and humorous conversation where both ‘selves’ question, enlighten, and warn one another about things in life that really matter.

Note: This title is intended by the artist to be viewed in High Definition. While DVD format is available to enable accessibility, VDB recommends presentation on Blu-ray or HD digital file.

Nancy Holt

Zeroing In

1973

Perceptual concerns predominate in my videoworks. In Locating #2, Zeroing In, and Points of View, large outdoor spaces — as much as five miles in depth and one mile in width from fifteen floors up — are spanned on the video screen. Space is flattened and contracted. By placing a prop (a movable tube or a piece of cardboard with holes that open and close) in front of the camera, I block off most of the static camera view, leaving one or more circular images to come and go.