10/7/21: Virtual Talks with Video Activists: Megan Williams

A screening/discussion with filmmaker Megan Williams moderated by media scholar Laura-Zoe Humphreys.

Just in time for the running of the 125th Boston Marathon on 10/11/21, Media Burn hosted filmmaker Megan Williams, who screened excerpts from several of her films, including BOSTON, the first feature-length documentary film about the world’s most legendary running race. The event was be moderated by media scholar Laura-Zoë Humphreys.

The screening began with Megan’s work as a co-founder and partner of 1970s Guerrilla Television collective TVTV, a band of “braless, blue-jeaned video freaks” (Newsweek) who set out to revolutionize not only how to capture the news, but also to transform the relationship between image producers and image consumers. Megan screened excerpts from Gerald Ford’s America (1975) and Super Bowl (1976). You can watch the full versions of these and other works by TVTV at: http://www.tvtvnow.com/

This was followed by selections from her career as an independent filmmaker:

Language Says It All, a 1987 documentary short about deaf children and their caregivers, which was nominated for an Academy Award. Full version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c3-3oZ_CHf4

Tell Me Cuba, a 2006 film which examined the state of US-Cuban relations, narrated by Gina Gershon.

BOSTON (2017), following the tragic events of 2013, BOSTON showcases the preparations for and eventual running of the 118th Boston Marathon one year later, when runners and community gather together once again for what will be the most meaningful race of all. Rent the film at: https://www.amazon.com/Boston-Matt-Damon/dp/B077W1DJ7X

Megan Williams is an Academy Award nominee and recipient of the Alfred I. duPont Columbia Journalism Award. A former adjunct professor at USC’s School of Cinematic Arts, she began her career in the 1970’s as co-founder and partner of TVTV — an independent video collective known for its influential body of work.

Laura-Zoë Humphreys is a professor in the department of Communication at Tulane University. Her first book, Fidel between the Lines: Paranoia and Ambivalence in Late Socialist Cuban Cinema, draws on over a decade of ethnographic fieldwork, textual analysis, and archival research to track the changing dynamics of social criticism and censorship in late socialist Cuba. She is currently working on her second book project, tentatively entitled Pushing Culture: Digital Media Piracy and the Politics of Entertainment in Cuba.