University Community Video Media Documentary

Minnesota Media Arts is seeking support to start a concept treatment and fundraising project documentary. University Community Video (UCV) was established in 1974 through a collective merger of University Student Telecommunication Corporation (USTC) and the West Bank-Video Access Center (WBU-VAC). UCV was a pioneer organization in the community media access and "Guerrilla Television" landscape of the 1970's. 

UCV introduced portable video "portapak" production training sessions and produced the TV series "Changing Channels" that featured community focused content broadcast on KTCA-TV Channel 2, in St. Paul Minnesota. (13th National TV Market)  These innovative programs were one of the earliest examples of  “alternative media broadcast programming” in the United States, produced and edited using the groundbreaking “portable video location and editing technology.

In 1979, Craig Sinard produced an insightful documentary about UCV and Changing Channels broadcast series, we hope to utilize some of his footage in our new project. Watch online: Video Access in the Twin Cities - A Study of University Community Video

In the early 1980's, UCV rebranded itself as Intermedia Arts in moving off the U of M campus and expanded into a multi-disciplinary arts organization. University Community Video/Intermedia Arts "Changing Channels Series" Collection (1974-1978). MN Media Arts is continuing to research and define the CC series metadata, broadcast timeline, confirming program titles, length, producer and copyright information.

In 2022, the Minnesota Historical Society, (MNHS) received a Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR) Recordings at Risk grant to complete the digital preservation of the collection.  Our new goal at MNMA is to both utilize the collection assets in our documentary and to secure a wider release of digitized collection making it available both for research, educational and entertainment purposes. 

Your support will help in our efforts to bring the groundbreaking TV series out of "deep storage at MNHS" and to start the Changing Channels series promotional releases as we complete the development phase of our UCV Documentary.