Street TV: Radical Film and Video in Wales

Portapacks, activism and independent film: how Community Video Workshop gave marginalised communities a voice outside of mainstream broadcasting in 1970s–80s. About Low-cost and portable video technology facilitated the growth of community-based video making in the 1970s. Grassroots video groups set up across the UK, disrupting the narratives of broadcast television and giving voice to those marginalised, misrepresented and ignored by mainstream media. From addressing hyperlocal struggles to national concerns including housing, unemployment, discrimination and industrial disputes - video became a radical tool for activism. Based at Chapter, the Community Video Workshop was one of the first video workshops in the UK. It was set up in 1974 as Cardiff Street TV, by Terence Dimmick, Steve Gough and Jane Hutt, following the loan of a portapack video camera from the Welsh Arts Council. It later secured funding and additional members, enabling it to provide video equipment, training, editing facilities and distribution strategies to community groups, individuals and communities of interest across South Wales. From 1983 it became a franchised workshop, receiving funding from Channel 4 to develop and make independent documentaries for television. The Community Video Workshop was one of several workshops in Wales during the 1970s and 80s, others included: Chapter Film Workshop, Powys Video Project, Gweld Video, Black Video Workshop Wales, South West Glamorgan Video Workshop and South Wales Women’s Film Group, some members of which went on to form Red Flannel, the first women’s film workshop in Wales. This exhibition offers a starting point to explore the under-researched area of independent film and video production in Wales and draws primarily on the archives of the Community Video Workshop. It brings together a series of videos and archival materials to reflect on community video making as a dynamic practice of empowering marginalised groups and individuals with a new emerging technology. Read more Toggle Photography Multi-disciplinary Film / Video