Surveilling Surveillance: The Spy Store

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Part of a longer production that explores modern surveillance technologies and how they affect us, this segment exposes civilian spy techniques at their weirdest and finest.

Shot at Spy Store NYC in the West Village.

David Harvey Interview

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Art, Activism and Analysis: A New Series on Free Speech TV (Trailer)

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Paper Tiger Television will present ART, ACTIVISM and ANALYSIS a 13-part curated series highlighting some of our most outstanding shows. The series presents a chronological look at how the content and style of the collective's work has changed since 1981. It covers a wide range of topics from racism, classism, DIY media, domestic violence, the prison-industrial complex, media conglomeration and displacement... just to name a few. Broadcast dates TBD but look for it sometime in late 2009 or early 2010 on Free Speech TV! Tune in!

Right to the City trailer

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This is the trailer for our first collaborative documentary with IndyVideo
(the video component of the Indypendent).

The Right to the City (RTTC) is a documentary about the New York coalition
of many groups which are giving a unified response to gentrification and a call to halt 
the displacement of low-income people, LGBTQ, and  youths of color from their
historic urban neighborhoods.The RTTC is a national alliance of racial, economic 
and environmental justice organizations. Groups like Picture the Homeless, Make the
Road, Mothers on the  Move... and also academics such as David Harvey are part
of the local movement.

The 28-minute documentary will come out soon.
Look for broadcast dates and information about local screenings 
on our website in the next few weeks.

For more information check this out: http://www.righttothecity.org/

Let Them Eat (Stinky) Cheese!

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On Thursday, September 24th, 2009, members of Times Up! orchestrated a bike ride and “Funky Protest Cheese Party” at Union Square to protest the privatization and transformation of the park’s Pavilion into a private upscale restaurant, a plan proposed by Danny Meyer and the Union Square Partnership. Through funky dance, protestors interrupted the annual private “dinner” for supporters of the privatization of the Pavilion, a place that is considered a birthplace of the Labor Movement and a historically important site for Free Speech: it’s an idea that stinks!

Paper Tiger Reads the 21st Century Working Woman

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In this mock-local news program, Paper Tiger will consider whether the utopian vision of working women seen in the popular movies of the late 1980's has come to fruition. Through a mix of sketch comedy, video mash-up, news media critique, faux hidden camera segments, and interviews with working women and the organizations that promote them, Paper Tiger will examine the current state of women in the workforce.

worms!!

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A closer look at worm composting--one form of DIY environmentalism and sustainable living in New York City.

Addicted to Beauty

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Another sneak peek at an upcoming Paper Tiger production: "Reality Unreeled: The Really Real Unreal Reality of Real Reality TV." Stay posted!

Is reality television real? Is this the real life or is it just fantasy? Paper Tiger's summer 2009 interns are currently creating a show on reality television to explore the social impacts and affective stereotypes of this explosive and exploitative genre that has taken TV networks by storm. The show will feature an interview with media critic, journalist and founder of Women in Media and News, Jennifer L. Pozner. Pozner will explain the social, economic and cultural reality of reality TV. The show will also include an interview with Robert Galinsky, founder and “principal” of the New York Reality TV School, where actors get trained how to act real. And the interns will try to make sense of all of those "Addicted to Beauty" posters that you see everywhere through interviews with random subway passer-bys. Stay tuned for the release of the show in late Fall 2009. In the meantime, keep yourselves busy with this preview piece from the Paper Tiger archives with Herb Schiller on Geraldo and trash television—the unfortunate predecessors of contemporary “video nausea!!!”

July 23rd 2009: Tent City

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Urban Environmentalism: DIY Green Living

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Paper Tiger Television introduces you to New Yorkers who have found ways to live more sustainably through DIY environmentalism. The creative and unique projects of these city dwellers show how living in urban settings encourages rather than hinders their ability to live a green lifestyle. This show features segments on worm composting as an alternative to landfill waste, reusable bags for green markets, food foraging walks with Wildman Steve Brill, and the monthly "Really, Really Free Market" in Manhattan, hosted by the In Our Hearts Collective. As an extra bonus, there is also an archival piece about the thriving yet threatened Lower East Side community gardens, documenting the residents struggle to save their gardens from the wrath of Mayor Giuliani's gentrifying bulldozers. Finally, the show includes a studio conversation between community members discussing how environmentalism, through resourcefulness and perseverance, can become a part of everyone's urban routine.

reality bites: the summer intern show!

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Is reality television real? Is this the real life or is it just fantasy? Paper Tiger's summer 2009 interns are currently creating a show on reality television to explore the social impacts and affective stereotypes of this explosive and exploitative genre that has taken TV networks by storm. The show will feature an interview with media critic, journalist and founder of Women in Media and News, Jennifer L. Pozner. Pozner will explain the social, economic and cultural reality of reality TV. The show will also include an interview with Robert Galinsky, founder and “principal” of the New York Reality TV School, where actors get trained how to act real. And the interns will try to make sense of all of those "Addicted to Beauty" posters that you see everywhere through interviews with random subway passer-bys. Stay tuned for the release of the show in late Fall 2009. In the meantime, keep yourselves busy with this preview piece from the Paper Tiger archives with Herb Schiller on Geraldo and trash television—the unfortunate predecessors of contemporary “video nausea!!!”

Street Art Takeover!

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On April 25th teams of whitewashers and artists transformed over 100 of NPA City Outdoor's 480 illegal billboards in Manhattan from street level advertising to art. Organized by Public Ad Campaign's Jordan Seiler, the New York Street Art Takeover 2009 not only set out to bring more art to public space, but to raise the question of who controls our visual landscape?

Prescription for REAL Debate on Healthcare Reform

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FAIR (Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting) and local healthcare advocacy groups delivered a petition signed by over 12,500 people demanding that the TV networks include the single-payer proposal in their coverage of the national healthcare debate. The petition's signatories include Obama's longtime physician, Dr. David Scheiner; filmmaker Michael Moore; former MSNBC host Phil Donahue; actors Mike Farrell, Tim Robbins and Susan Sarandon; and doctors Quentin Young, Stephanie Woolhandler and David Himmelstein of Physicians for a National Health Program.

The petition was presented to a security guard, despite FAIR's efforts to speak directly to an ABC representative with editorial control. ABC News disinvited Dr. Scheiner from its recent forum on healthcare reform, where he'd been planning to ask Obama a question about single-payer.

FAIR, Physicians for a National Health Program, Healthcare Now!, the Private Health Insurance Must Go Coalition, Code Pink and the Raging Grannies all took part in the petition delivery.

For more information www.healthcare-now.org/

Paper Tiger and IndyVideo Production

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Tiger meets Indy 

Left Forum Superhero 2009

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IndyVideo and Paper Tiger TV went out to ask some serious and some funny questions at the 2009 Left Forum. Here is an example of what the people there thought about superheroes.

Surveilling Surveillance

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Paper Tiger Television is currently in production on a new show on surveillance culture. From government wiretapping to Facebook, GPS systems to credit card swipes, Google searches to nanny cams- how are you being watched? What are the implications if living in a surveillance culture? Are we safer or are our civil liberties threatened? Watch out for this new production coming out in summer 2009.

An Emergent Second Life

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For 27 years, the PTTV collective has played an important role in the tradition of media criticism, paying special attention to the inner workings of media production. The media landscape today, with the proliferation of new content providers, creates complex relationships and convergences among everyday and corporate forms of production, distribution and consumption. Media criticism no longer can take an "outside" vantage point, but must instead account for our general immersion in a veritable media ecology. This program, hosted by anthropologist Jason Pine (Purchase College SUNY), focuses on identity in the virtual world Second Life and what it can tell us about identity in everyday experience. It suggests that self-designed experiences may enable us to articulate emergent identities for ourselves and others. The program combines a live studio audience, videotaped testimonials of Second Life users who express profound personal investments while creating their avatars and environments, and experimental machinima (machine cinema) to evoke the experience of virtual self-design and world-building. Co- Producer and Director, Bianca Ahmadi; Associate Producer, Juan Rubio; Editor, Juan David Gonzalez; Content Director, Jason Pine.

Infiltrating the Underground: The Corporatization of Radical Culture

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This Paper Tiger Television production was created in collaboration with author and activist Anne Elizabeth Moore. The show takes a look at how corporations are chipping away at democracy and personal integrity by copying the style and techniques of alternative culture. The program examines how and why anti-corporate culture and independent media have been co-opted by corporate advertising and their profit-making agenda, examining instances where the government and big business collude to silence independent voicesand concerns for social justice. Moore explains what happens when the underground becomes just another market and the implications for a democracy founded on the ideals of access to a diversity of ideas and perspectives. It also provides insight as to why underground culture willingly participates and what independent artists and media makers can do about it. Paper Tiger Televisions 27-year history of provocative independent television and Moores 23 years of independent print publishing combine in this compelling look at cultural production and economic censorship in this age of rampant branding.

Love Me, Love My Avatar

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This show addresses changing notions of love and romance in the face of the rampant technological innovations of the Internet era. Dominic Pettman, Assistant Professor of Culture and Media at the New School and our avatar host take a look at love in the digital era. Pettman discuses several manifestations of "Love 5.0" such as objectum sexuality, virtual girlfriends, and cyborg love, and explore the possible impacts of this new love on the future of the libidinal economy. Includes a clip from Donna Haraway Reads National Geographic and a PTTV eharmony spoof.

Infiltrating the Underground Preview

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Paper Tiger Television, in cooperation with author and activist Anne Elizabeth Moore, presents a new thirty-minute documentary, Infiltrating the Underground: The Corporatization of Underground Culture, to air Wednesday, December 10th at 3 and 11 p.m. on Brooklyn Community Access Television, and at 8 p.m. on Manhattan Neighborhood Network. This video collaboration will look at how big business is chipping away at democracy through underground cultures—and how underground cultures willingly participate.

The program will examine how and why anti-corporate culture and independent media have been co-opted by corporate advertising and the profit-making agenda, examining instances where the government and big business collude to silence independent voices—and concerns for social justice. Copies of Infiltrating the Underground are available for purchase for classroom use or to air on local community access stations.

A follow-up to Moore’s 2007 New Press book, Unmarketable: Brandalism, Copyfighting, Mocketing, and the Erosion of Integrity, the video Infiltrating the Underground investigates what happens when the underground becomes just another market, and what independent artists and media makers can do about it. Paper Tiger Television’s 27-year history of provocative independent television and Anne Elizabeth Moore’s 23 years of independent print publishing combine in this compelling look at cultural production and economic censorship in this age of rampant branding.

An Emergent Second Life

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A television show produced in collaboration with Paper Tiger TV that focuses on identity in the virtual world Second Life and what it can tell us about identity in everyday experience. It suggests that self-designed experiences may enable us to articulate emergent identities for ourselves and for others. The program combines a live studio audience, videotaped testimonials of Second Life users who express profound personal investments while creating their avatars and environments, and experimental machinima (machine cinema) to evoke the experience of virtual self-design and world-building: www.papertiger.org

The show airs on December 3rd at 8pm on Manhattan Neighborhood Network (MNN) and at 3pm and 11pm on Brooklyn Community (BCAT). Co-producer and Director, Bianca Ahmadi; Associate Producer, Juan Rubio; Editor, Juan David Gonzalez; Content Director, Jason Pine.

Election Night Show Part 2

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The second half of Paper Tiger's live hour-long live election coverage on MNN.

Election Night Show Highlights

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From a surprise performance by an experimental gospel singer, to engaging discussions about Obama's silence on drug-war policy, his support for the Wall Street bailout, and his plans to increase military spending, Paper Tiger's live election show responsed in real time to the Democratic presidential victory.

Featuring Detroit-based experimental and gospel singer Abigail, the Indypendent newspaper's Steve Wishnia, Nick Powers and Arun Gupta, and Isabel Macdonald of the Paper Tiger TV collective.

Election Night Show Part 1

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First half-hour of Paper Tiger TV's hour-long live election night show, broadcast on Manhattan Neighborhood Network (Manhattan cable access TV) 10:30 - 11:30 pm on November 4. Featuring the Indypendent newspaper's Arun Gupta, Nick Powers and Steve Wishnia and Paper Tiger TV collective member Isabel Macdonald.

McCain-the-Maverick Rap

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Bye-bye Republicans! After the announcement of Obama's electoral victory, in the middle of Paper Tiger's live election show on Nov 4, the crew bid farewell to the Republicans with this music video directed by Matthew Filipowicz from headzuptv.com.

The Can-didates Debate

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This 30 second clip from Paper Tiger's live election night show probes the parallels between presidential campaigns and branding, highlighting some of the issues that were, er, not debated in the televised presidential debates. Animation by Gary B. Martin.

Peace Pentagon

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This short video gives a brief history of the building at 339 Lafayette. Since 1969 the Peace Pentagon has been the home of many social justice and peace organizations in New York City. We are working to raise the funds needed to save this historic epicenter of the progressive movement and create a sustainable haven for many future generations of activists, artists and organizers. Please visit our website for more information www.peacepentagon.org

TRT 8 minutes

Home on the Frontline

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Produced by a trio of teenage Brooklyn filmmakers using video to highlight the stories of young people affected by the war in Iraq on a daily basis. A collaboration with Hook Productions. 2008 TRT 11 minutes

Subverting Media : A Low Tech Guide to Information Activism

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From stencils to 'zines to graffiti and poster art, "Subverting the Media" takes us on a trip through the alternative media scene. East Harlem muralist James De La Vega, anti-patriarchal poster collective "Sister Serpents", Bronx-based graffiti group, "Tats Cru" and Sabrina Margarita Sandata, a feminist zinester, challenge social and cultural stereotypes through their work. The program explores the potential everyone has to create their own media, examines the process for creating the message, and demonstrates how to go out and make your own media. 1998 TRT: 25 minutes.

Paper Tiger Wednesday Night Series on MNN

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Paper Tiger broadcasts every Wednesday night on Manhattan Neighborhood Network (MNN) TimeWarner Ch34 and RCN Ch82. In September of 2008 we will be launching a 14-week curated series highlighting some of our most outstanding shows. Covering a wide range of topics from racism, classism, DIY media, media conglomeration, domestic violence, prisons, globalization and displacement. TUNE IN! For more information www.papertiger.org www.mnn.org

Paper Tiger Retreat!

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Hilarity ensues as a group of tigers take to life in the great outdoors at Latvian camp! Along with the general productivity and self-reflection that goes along with the annual retreat, Paper Tiger gets into some wild and goofy shenanigans!

Who Wants to be America's Next Top President

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Paper Tiger takes a look at the media coverage of the 2008 election and compares it to the selection process of America's Next Top Model.

Watch the trailer

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2 minute trailer of Paper Tiger TV's show about media coverage of the 2008 presidential election, "Who Wants to Be America's Next Top President?"

Tim Robbins NAB Speech

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Renowned actor, director and writer Tim Robbins used his keynote address at the National Association of Broadcasters conference on April 14 to speak out about the "dangerous lack of diversity of opinion" that characterizes the state of broadcasting today. Lambasting the media for their failure to treat the Bush administration's lies about Iraqi WMDs with the scrutiny they had shown former President Bill Clinton's sex scandal, he calls on the nation's broadcasters to do a better job of upholding their responsibilities to the public. The NAB initially refused to make Robbins' speech available (in contrast to other speeches from their 08 convention). Then they released an edited version in which many of Robbins' most critical remarks were cut. This is the full version of the speech! (Approximately 22 minutes.)

From the Archives PTTV Show # 148

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Here's a clip from the Paper Tiger archives featuring Daniel Marcus Watches the Campaign Miniseries '88, show #148.  Marcus explains how presidential candidates sculpt their image much in the same way fictional television characters are portrayed on sitcoms and television drama. This segment will be featured in our next show Who wants to be Americas Next Top Candidate.

Campaign Ads

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These ads will be featured in Paper Tiger's studio show broadcasting on MNN in the next few weeks. The show "Who Wants to be America's next Top President" will deconstruct the similarities between media coverage of the presidential election and the selection process on "America's Next Top Model". Stay Tuned.

Art, Activism and Analysis Tour-Trailer

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Screenings and Events in California
FEBRUARY 2008

Check out the complete schedule at

www.papertiger.org/AAA

Joan does "Dynasty" Trailer

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Tape# 105 Hampshire College professor and stand-up theorist Joan Braderman takes on power and desire in TV's campiest series. "Joan Does Dynasty," a classic in feminist media deconstruction, is a hilarious look at the materialistic 80's in the context of the ordinary working person's life. Superimposing herself over portions of "Dynasty" and into the bedrooms, office suites and maids' quarters of the super rich, Braderman asks, "Why do 100 million people in 78 countries welcome this department store of dressed-to-kill aliens into their homes every week?" TRT: 28 minutes.

Class Dismissed Trailer

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Tape# 320 Class Dismissed provides a critical look at how U.S. history is taught in high school, at the myths that reduce the complexity of history into simple soundbites, and the information that never seems to make it onto the textbook pages. How can we alter this system to address the limitations of the current curriculum, to allow students to find their own place in history and the world today, to inspire them to become active learners and agents for social change? This video takes a beginning step by looking at the textbook industry, standardized testing, the lack of race and class analysis in textbooks, and the teacher’s role in introducing a range of perspectives into the classroom. Featuring authors Howard Zinn (A People’s History of the United States) and James Loewen (Lies My Teacher Told Me), New York public high school students, textbook industry insiders, and teachers, this is a must-see video for any student of American History. TRT

Fenced Out Trailer

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Tape #304. Fenced Out documents the fight for the Christopher St. pier, a long-established hangout and safe haven for New York City’s youth of color and lower-income, homeless, lesbian, gay bisexual, transgender, questioning and two-spirited youth. In the summer of 2000, development for a state park began “fencing out” the kids, with support from residents of nearby waterfront properties. “You are lowering the property value,” notes one police officer bluntly. The video examines the clash between the groups that claim ownership of the pier, from the perspective of the youths who feel it is the only place where they belong. The documentary includes interviews with “pierets” about how important the pier is in their lives, and with LGBTQ activists about the history of the piers and their connection to the gay liberation movement of the 60’s. It explores how the struggle to save the pier connects to a larger historical and social movement, and develops a plan of action to save them. Produced by Paper Tiger Television in collaboration with New Neutral Zone and FIERCE.

Paper Tiger Reads Paper Tiger Television - Trailer

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PAPER TIGER TV 25th ANNIVERSARY MOST GALA-ICIOUS EVENT EVER!!!!
OCTOBER 11th!!

Come celebrate with Amy Goodman, Bill Tabb, Joan Braderman
and the Paper Tiger Collective

TICKETS GOING FAST- BUY NOW ONLINE at www.papertiger.org
Tickets $15-$35

PAPER TIGER TV CELEBRATES 25 YEARS
OF SMASHING THE MYTHS OF THE INFORMATION INDUSTRY
WITH PREMIERE OF A NEW DOCUMENTARY!!

Join us at 7pm at Anthology Film Archives on October 11th for the
world premiere of Paper Tiger Reads Paper Tiger Television , a raucous
documentary celebrating 25 years of kick-ass, radical media-making. Drink wine with theTigers! Check out the video installation! See an amazing live performance!

RARE CHANCE TO SEE CLASSIC PAPER TIGER PRODUCTIONS ON THE BIG SCREEN
October 15 and 16
$8 (tickets at door)
More information at www.papertiger.org

Contact info@papertiger.org or call 212 420 9045

Anthology Film Archives
32 Second Avenue @ Second Street 212-505-5181

Operation Storm the Media Trailer

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Trailer for Operation Storm the Media. In the media coverage of the Persian Gulf War, even the pretense of a separation between the press and state was abandoned. This show explores the relationship between corporate sponsorship and media censorship via coverage of the "Challenge the Media" demonstration in NYC in January 1991. PTTV and Renu Nahata from FAIR (Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting) comment on the media's packaging of the war. Winner of the 1991 Visions of the US video competition. Full show will be screened October 15th at the Anthology Film Archive at 32 2nd ave. in New York City at 7pm along with Herb Schiller Reads the New York Times: The Steering Mechanism of the Ruling Class. The evening will be hosted by Jeff Cohen, the founder of F.A.I.R. (Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting). For more info check out www.papertiger.org

Tompkins Square Park: Operation Class War on the Lower East Side

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A trailer for this dynamic and captivating documentary-style production, which pieces together the unofficial story behind the Riot of ’88 and reveals the ugly side of forced gentrification in New York City. The production traces the transformation of Tompkins Square Park from being a tent city for homeless people and bastion of free expression for artists, bohemians, rebels and crazies, to becoming a central battleground in the fiercely contested class war over the Lower East Side. The show is not to be missed by any New York City history buff, affordable housing advocate or social justice-minded citizen.Full show will be shown October 16th at 7pm at the Anthology Film Archives at 32 2nd ave. in New York City as part of Paper Tiger Televisions 25 year anniversary event. An Excerpt from Thulani Davis asks "Why Howard Beach?: Racial Violence and the Media will also be shown at this event focusing on Race and Class in New York. The evening will be hosted by Picture The Homeless.

Silenced by the Media

In support of AWAAM's youth media program, Paper Tiger contributed a video mentor to assist the youth at AWAAM in producing this 11-minute piece debunking the myths of the media around the Khalil Gibran International Academy. For more information, check out www.awaam.org.

Military Myths DVD Preview

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Screen this at your after-school program, in your community, or local school!
If you want a free copy, a screening of Military Myths, or an "Alternatives to the Military" workshop, email mariko@papertiger.org.

Thulani Davis asks "Why Howard Beach" preview

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The death of Michael Griffiths and the assault of three other black men in Queens, NY at the hands of a group of white teens sparked community protests throughout New York City and eventually erupted into the media storm that became known as the Howard Beach Incident. In an informative monologue, writer and activist, Thulani Davis approaches a question that much of the media at the time had left untouched: what caused this event? Davis looks into acts of racial violence across the country and analyzes the media coverage these incidents received. Davis eventually concludes that the hatred and violence that caused Howard Beach were, all too tragically, part of a larger American racial problem that has persisted in refusing to acknowledge itself, thanks in large part to an irresponsible and unresponsive media.

A Longer excerpt from the show will be shown October 16th at the Anthology Film Archives at 32 2nd ave. at 7pm along with Tompkins Square Park: Operation Class War on the Lower East Side as part of the Paper Tiger Reads Paper Tiger 25 year anniversary celebration. For more information on the show please visit www.papertiger.org

Paper Tiger does the U.S. Social Forum

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Here is some footage from the first U.S. Social Forum in Atlanta, GA 2007. In this 15 min. clip we have shout-outs, clips from the "Liberating Gender and Sexuality" plenary, and a short of Rebel Diaz, a hip hop duo out of the Boogie Down Bronx. If you have links to other U.S. Social Forum footage, please post links, (especially if you have clips from Andrea (Andy) Smith's talk at this same plenary). Artwork is by Trust Your Struggle crew out of NYC.

GOING POSTAL

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A sudden, dramatic postal rate change championed by a CORPORATE MEDIA MONSTER threatens the survival of independent publishers. Learn about the implications of this in "GOING POSTAL."

Paper Tiger at the US Social Forum 2007 part 1

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Paper Tiger at the Children's Social Forum in Atlanta

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In late June 2007, over 10,000 grassroots activists gathered in Atlanta for the first U.S. Social Forum. Paper Tiger Television brought cameras to the event and put them in the hands of youth attending the Children's Social Forum. This is what they shot.