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About The skanner. (Portland, Or.) 1975-2014 | View Entire Issue (Nov. 23, 2011)
news Video Collective Celebrates 20 Years Behind the lens by lisa loving Of The Skanner News T he Flying Focus Video Collective recently marked its 20th year of producing doc- umentary-style cable televi- sion programming about progressive issues and organizations. Core mem- bers, including PC Peri and Dan Handelman, have doc- umented so many events, speeches and actions that their catalogue of video reads like a history of Portland – and its ties to the world. The group was born during the presidency of George H. W. Bush, when Portland’s down- town streets saw the biggest demonstrations in the city’s history up to that time – as many as 10,000 people protesting against the U.S.’s first invasion of Iraq in 1990. The Skanner News spoke to video jour- nalist Peri about the collec- tive’s work, and how the newest chapter of Portland’s activist community, the Occupy Movement – which has triggered protests as big as those in the early 90s – is signaling a sea change in the medium of film. The Skanner news: You were there when Flying Focus first started in 1991. What was going on then? PC Peri: Massacre in the Middle East, and we needed to get the information out. we always had the philoso- phy of ‘use what you have and don’t go more high-tech than you can afford, or is necessary.’ So we weren’t using the most sophisticated stuff – in fact we were defi- nitely using VHS. So we were getting out coverage of what was going on with the demonstrations – we even tried a news format at one point but that required more energy and coordination than we could muster up. So we went into a format that was get- ting information out about news and events using video as a tool for social change that spoke to people who were involved, from their perspective, to the outside community. TSn: To me it’s remarkable that Flying Focus is celebrating your 20th anniversary at a time when Portland is see- ing the most activism since then. Do you have any impression of the signifi- cance of the Occupy Movement? PP: One, almost everyone here has some kind of ‘Make sure that the parties that are brought to the table are from the most capable to the least capable of us all. All those voices matter’ Some of us had been work- ing in video trying to do programs of our own, get- ting information out, and a collaborative effort was more productive. TSn: What was the first thing that you did? PP: Well let’s see, we all had our own equipment, and Check Out The Skanner Turn-the- Pages WebPaper www.theskanner.com home page: click the ‘Full Print Version Online’ button to view our full newspapers, just as they are printed, on-line. Just click to turn the pages and click to zoom. Page 10 The Portland Skanner november 23, 2011 PC Peri, part of the Flying Focus Video Collective, has helped build a video catalogue of Portland’s progressive community that reads like a modern history of the city. recording device, be it a cell phone or a camera, a still camera that takes video, video camera, audio record- ing device — which is quite different than when we started. And at Occupy there were so many reporters that I don’t think there was anything that happened that wasn’t recorded in one way or another. Which means it gets out to the world faster and more effi- ciently. The young woman who was, let’s say an activist, an insti- gator, an incentivizer, in Egypt, came to Occupy Wall Street, and she offered a – as a matter fact she used an interesting term, what was that? Power to the peo- ple. It’s getting out there. Now the differences – it’s all going out as it happens to the web, the trick is going to be in get- ting the big picture. Digesting it and being able to speak to those who have a vision of where to go next and who can be the operators in that – before the vacuum hits. TSn: What’s the vacu- um? PP: The vacuum is always when things get stirred up, and who the players are is not yet decid- ed. So in many cases that has provided the opportuni- ty for agents provocateurs to come in – the same thing happened to the Tea Party, important is that we’ve trained so many people. I think in the 20 years we have had as many as 52 peo- ple in a given event. And we have trained as many as 130 people who have gone out like ants and worked on projects all over the world – mainly all over the country but we’ve got somebody in Beijing now, we’ve got somebody in Germany. It hap- pens, and the for- -- PC Peri mer Yugoslavia. So that capability spreads out – that’s have to see how that works probably the most important thing. out. The other is to look at the So it’s a little bit different discussion than what was connections, the linkages. when we covered George When you see something Bush on both sides of the happening, what sparked it? river and ran it live – the And what does it affect? forces were the same in that And look at those things, the power structure tried to and get that information out. And make sure that the parties that are brought to the table are from the most capable to the least capable of us all. All those voic- hinder that transmission of es matter. TSn: Is there a place coverage but it can’t happen as easily now as it tried to where people can see your do then. Unless they do work? Do you have it digi- tally catalogued for people? electromagnetic rain. PP: We do. Go to our TSn: So for a new gener- ation of people who have website, it’s all right there. never heard of the FFVC, Find the catalogue and what’s the most important thing that you feel the info about how you can get at organization, that loose involved group of people, has www..rdrop.com/~ffvc/ achieved through the years? PP: Well maybe the most and now it’s going to be a question of how people decide to reach consensus about what democracy actu- ally is and who gets to talk with each other. And we’ll ‘We have trained as many as 130 people who have gone out like ants and worked on projects all over the world http://www.youtube.com /user/FlyingFocus
