Collections Watch Portable Channel Videos

Portable Channel’s mission was to expand television into a medium for social dialog and artistic expression by encouraging community involvement in TV production.

  • Portable Channel was a Rochester, NY non-profit (1971–1987) founded by documentary filmmaker and activist Bonnie Sherr Klein. Portable Channel supported community access to video equipment, provided training, and produced programs with an emphasis on community activism and documentary work.

    The Portable Channel tape collection consists of 910 videotapes in various formats; the majority of the material is ½ inch open reel with some ¾ inch and a few examples of 1 inch and quad. About half of the videotapes in the collection were produced for HOMEMADE TV that ran from 1972 to 1975 on WXXI-TV in Rochester, NY.

    In May, 2020, VSW received a Recordings at Risk grant from  Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR) to digitize 200 of the earliest Portable Channel tapes. The grant program is made possible by funding from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. Videos from the CLIR project can be seen on the VSW Vimeo page as they become available.

     

    All programs are © Portable Channel / Visual Studies Workshop. For more information please contact taranelson@vsw.org

  • Bonnie Meets Kodak (1972)

  • Attica Inmates (1971)

  • Night at the Planetarium (1971)

  • Cops and Peter (1972)

  • Gay Women at YWCA Women’s Meeting (1971)

  • Given the Opportunity (1977)

  • Homemade TV: The Electronic Image (1975)

  • Homemade TV: Making News (1975)

  • Homemade TV: Sports and Sex: What About Women? (1973)

  • Homemade TV: Summer Fun (1973)

  • The Normal Woman (1972)

  • Police Brutality (1972)

  • Police Recruits (1971)

  • Police Recruits, Playback and Discussion (1971)

  • Rochester Anti-War Rally (1972)

  • San Francisco Mime Troupe (1973)

  • Self Help Productions (1973)

  • Shirley Chisholm Press Conference (1971)

  • SMUT Postering Project (1977)

  • This Is Not Here: Yoko Ono and John Lennon Press Conference (1971)

  • TV News coverage of police attacks (1972)

  • Women Working: Mary Anna Towler (1973)

  • Women on Women (1973)

  • Women Ministers Part 1 (1976)

  • YAWF Demonstration Aftermath (1972)

  • YAWF Demonstration and Aftermath R5

  • Free to Be (1978)

  • It’s About You (1977)

  • Pleasure Profit Power (1977)

  • Astral Projection: A Polyfusion of Media (1975)

  • Homemade TV: Gerardo (1973)

  • Happy Birthday Homemade TV (1973)

  • Hype for Hopper (1973)

  • New Kid in Town (1977)

  • Outside Agitators (1973)

  • Videoflow (1974)

  • Wanted: Alternatives (1975)

  • Portable Channel Meets Senior Citizens (1972)

  • Rape: Breaking the Silence (1974)