Articles & Reviews

This page includes a selection of reviews of the first and second Women's Video Festivals in 1972 and 1973, as well as a 1976 catalogue introduction by Susan Milano. Also included are two extensive journal articles, from 1983 and 2003, which survey the history of the Women's Video Festival in the context of feminist video practice and the larger political and cultural framework of 1970's feminism. The documents may be viewed by clicking on the appropriate links.

Robin Reising, "Women on tape: Spinning Tales and Tailspins"
The Village Voice (October 5, 1972): Pag.46.

In this review of the first Women's Video Festival, Robin Reisig gives an account of the festival and a critical judgment on some of the works presented.

 

Rob Pinney, "Annual video-tape extravaganza stresses a women's point of view"
Popular Photography (1973): 22, 108.

Roy Pinney reviews the Second Annual Women's Video Festival, held at The Kitchen in 1973; he hails the videotape as the "newest art form to articulate the inner spirit of our time."

 

Richard F. Shepard, "Ms. Message."
The New York Times, Going Out Guide (October 5, 1973)

This announcement for the Women's Video Festival states, "even those women chained to household chores with no other company than soap operas or the Watergate hearings on the small screen will find this television different."

 

Introduction to Women's Video Festival catalogue, Susan Milano
(1976)

In this introduction to the catalogue for the 1976 Women's Video Festival, Susan Milano looks back at the past years' festivals and posits her arguments for a separate forum for showcasing women's videotapes.

 

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.

 

Barlow, Melinda M. "Feminism 101: The New York Women's Video Festival, 1972-1980"
Camera Obscura (Dec 1, 2003) vol. 18, no. 54, pp. 3-40.

This exhaustive 37-page essay on the history of the Women's Video Festival addresses the fact that the Festival has been largely ignored since the 1970s.