Video Politics: Early Feminist Projects

Martha Gever

Summer 1983

Description

Martha Gever, "Video Politics: Early Feminist Projects"
Afterimage vol. 11, no 1/2, Summer 1983.

In this extensive article, published in Afterimage in 1983, Martha Gever discusses the feminist political documentary of the 1970s in the context of a neglected history. Gever discusses the social, technical and aesthetic forces that informed the political video documentary and its relation to feminism and women videomakers. Gever discusses four documentaries in detail, which were presented at the Women's Video Festivals in 1973 and 1974: Politics of Intimacy by Julie Gustafson, Harriet by Nancy Cain, Ama l'Uomo Tuo by Cara Devito and 50 Wonderful Years by the video collective Optic Nerve. Gever argues that economic, cultural and political conditions have relegated this work to a forgotten social history.