October 15
7pm MEDIA REFORM
Hosted by Jeff Cohen, founder of FAIR, Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting

Herb Schiller Reads the New York Times: The Steering Mechanism of The Ruling Class
1981, 28 minutes, originally a live television broadcast
One of the first Paper Tiger Television shows… ever! Broadcast live on public access television in NYC in 1981. Communications expert Herb Schiller dissects the Grey Lady of American journalism with trenchant criticisms. Schiller strips away the many layers of the Sunday Times to reveal crass commercialism, biased reporting, and the latest in Fall Fashions in this classic PTTV episode. Herb Schiller, whose books and articles made him a key figure both in communication research and in the public debate over the role of the media in modern society, documented key shortcomings in the new information economy years before anyone else called it. A biting analysis of the New York Times’ cultural, political and economical hegemony in setting the agenda that shapes the news and culture industry. Shot in both black and white and color video.

Operation Storm the Media
1991, 28 minutes, Video
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. FAlR's Renu Nahata slices through the hype of mainstream Gulf War media coverage while Camcorder Commandos show the networks a thing or two about investigative journalism, exposing the links between the networks, the Pentagon and the bomb makers. A winner at the 1991's Visions of the US video competition.

9pm LABOR
Hosted by Gene Carroll, Director Union Leadership Program, Cornell University, New York State School of Industrial & Labor Relations and former Tiger Linda Iannacone.

Drawing the Line at Pittston
1990, 60 minutes, Video
Drawing the Line at Pittston chronicles the yearlong miners strike against the Pittston Mine Company in Virginia, West Virginia and eastern Kentucky in 1989. Though a landmark event in the history of labor (one of the largest labor disputes in the last fifty years), this working people's strike garnered little attention in the mainstream media. Using interviews with striking miners and their families, members of the clergy, labor leaders, students, and others affected by the strike this program documents the gradual political awakening of a community whose livelihood is threatened by corporate greed. This strike proved to be a dramatic symbol for unions everywhere as supporters from around the world rallied behind the United Mine Workers. In the words of Cecil Roberts, UMWA vice president in charge of the strike: "This is class warfare."

Who's Paying the Price?
2002, 30 minutes, Digital Video
This documentary reviews the effects of the September 11 tragedy on the working people of New York. The project includes interviews with labor union and welfare rights activists, cab drivers and homeless people, and those who lost their jobs directly or indirectly because of 9/11. It examines how the government's relief funds are used for corporate bailouts and completely disregard those most in need. The project also looks at how the corporate media ignored these injustices while it was busy packaging and selling the government response through patriotism and consumerism. On this project PTTV partnered with Rebuild with a Spotlight on the Poor Coalition, the Good Old Lower East Side, The University Settlement and used interviews by ACORN and members of the Marriott WTC Hotel Workers Union.

October 16
7PM RACE AND CLASS IN NYC
Host Picture the Homeless

Tompkins Square Park: Operation Class War on the Lower East Side
1992, 47 minutes, Video
This dynamic and captivating documentary pieces together the unofficial story behind the Riot of 1988 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 production features passionate interviews with people who made their home in Tompkins Square Park in the 80s and defended their right to do so, as well as guerilla footage from the riots, rallies and protests that occurred in and around the park. It also provides analysis of the political and media environments that allowed the city government’s seizure of the park.

Thulani Davis Asks, “Why Howard Beach?”: Racial Violence and the Media
1987, 15 minute excerpt, Video
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 left untouched: what caused this event? Davis looks into acts of racial violence across the country analyzing the media coverage these incidents received. Davis eventually conclude 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.

9PM LGBTSTQ PERSPECTIVES
Hosted by former Tigers Kate Huh, Co-Director of MIX NYC Gay and Lesbian Experimental Film Festival and Tara Mateik, Education Coordinator at Art in General and founder of Society of Biologial Insurgents (SBI), an organization that wages strategic operations to overthrow institutions of compulsory gender

Fenced Out
2001, 28 minutes, Digital Video
Fenced Out documents the fight for the Christopher Street 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 LGBTSTQ activists about the history of the piers and their connection to the gay liberation movement of the 1960’s. Produced by Paper Tiger Television in collaboration with New Neutral Zone and FIERCE.

Homecoming Queens
1999, 28 minutes, Digital Video
For the first time, a group of residents at Green Chimney's Gramercy Residence a group home for adolescents 15–21 years of age who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, or questioning their sexual identity, document their lives inside the foster care system. The youth present a first hand account of life within one of only two programs in the United States that provide residential services for LGBTSTQ youth. Through interviews and testimonials, these youth provide a moving account of the friendships and emotional supports that they have created for themselves within the residence. This project also highlights their fight to establish a unique identity and be accepted for who they are by a system that is often indifferent to their struggle.

Keep On Livin'
2002, 3 minutes, Digital Video
In collaboration with Le Tigre, Paper Tiger Television organized a group of LGBTSTQ youth in New York to produce a three minute video that was projected during the live performances of the song “Keep on Livin’”. This video provided a visual layer to foreground conceptual and theoretical ideas that might otherwise have been lost in the rock club settings where the band often performed.