Born to be Sold: Martha Rosler Reads the Strange Case of Baby $/M

Born to be Sold: Martha Rosler Reads the Strange Case of Baby $/M 1988

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Born to be Sold is Paper Tiger Television and Rosler's acerbic and witty interpretation of the notorious "Baby M" case, in which a natural — "surrogate" — mother and father of a baby fought each other for custody of the child. Rosler assumes various roles of the participants in the controversy, from the baby to the sperm, from the lawyer to the judge, as well as the two women in the case. Reconstructing the story from its trial by media and the court transcripts, Rosler views "surrogate" mother Mary Beth Whitehead's actions as an attempt to defy the identity assigned by her class and gender, and sees the verdict favoring the Sterns as an endorsement of the father's phallic right, his jurisprudential entitlement. Her analysis demonstrates how political, class and ideological systems are played out on the body of the woman.

1988

Sock Ads: Judith Williamson Consumes Passionately in Southern California

Sock Ads: Judith Williamson Consumes Passionately in Southern California 1987

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Judith Williamson examines consumer culture in America, from the multiplication of products and their functions to capitalism’s colonization of the body. What is the meaning of freedom in modern day America? Is it the freedom to change the world or the freedom to change our socks?

1987

Showdown in Seattle: Five Days That Shook the WTO

Showdown in Seattle: Five Days That Shook the WTO 1999

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1999 documentary film, first broadcast in daily half-hour installments, about the November 1999 protests against the Ministerial Conference of the World Trade Organization (WTO) in Seattle, Washington.

1999

Market This!: Queer Radicals Respond to Gay Assimilation

Market This!: Queer Radicals Respond to Gay Assimilation 2003

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While global capitalism is a defining feature of our times, many engage in an anti-capitalist resistance. MARKET THIS! is a timely documentary that explores the desire for radical politics and culture in the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Two-Spirited and Transgender community. The documentary began in 1999 after the Queeruption gathering in New York City. During workshops and caucuses and through discussion and entertainment, participants came together to explore ways that this community can sustain and validate itself without supporting a system that actively exploits poor people, women, People of Color, g/b/l/TS/t people. This video takes the dialogue from Queeruption one step further. MARKET THIS! considers both the successes as well as the problems which resulted most visibly (and ironically) from a lack of involvement and presence of People of Color and Transgender people.

2003

Donna Haraway Reads

Donna Haraway Reads "The National Geographic" on Primates 1987

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How does the "cultured" gorilla, i.e. Koko, come to represent universal man? Author and cultural critic Donna Haraway untangles the web of meanings, tracing what gets to count as nature, for whom and when, and how much it costs to produce nature at a particular moment in history for a particular group of people.

1987

Brian Winston Reads the TV News

Brian Winston Reads the TV News 1983

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This live show features the energetic analysis of television network news by Brian Winston. Winston looks at the news as a unique institution, governed by its own conventions and constraints.

1983

Martha Rosler Reads

Martha Rosler Reads "Vogue" 1982

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In this live performance for Paper Tiger Television's public-access cable program in New York, Rosler deconstructs the messages in Vogue and its advertising. Rosler looks at the institutional slants of the magazine industry and the fashion industry's reliance on sweatshops.

1982