Andy Mann

Andy Mann! Andy Mann!
This DVD is a must for anyone interested in video art, and I can't recommend it highly enough. Mann was among the first groups to get involved with using video as an expressive art form and means for creating critical alternative media. His manic and infectious personality make even the most banal of situations, like getting a haircut, very entertaining. Unfortunately Mann died in 2001, in his early fifties. It's hard to believe that eleven years have past since then.

i couldnt take my eyes off of it. i watched it 3 times in a row
In 1968 Andy Mann was one of the only people in New York City with a video camera. He carried it every where he went, and he was treated like a god, an anchorman, or something in between. His video camera consisted of a VTR unit about the size of a modern microwave oven, which was strapped to the operator like a large, heavy backpack and tethered to the camera unit by a cable. The camera itself was still larger than the largest handheld/shoulder mount VHS cameras that would become ubiquitous at Disneyland 25 years later. He shot in black and white, and he turned his camera on himself for video diaries (which look like the earliest versions of today's YouTube rants) and he took his camera into the streets of New York, where an unrecognizably un-cynical public reacted to him in ways I do not recognize as human beings. The beauty of their innocence is constant and revelatory. Everyone in New York City is happy to see this man with a video camera. The first 8 chapters of this DVD proceed...



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