Deep Dish Television was the first public access television distribution network in the United States. Created in 1986 by Paper Tiger Television and based in New York City, the network was committed to exploring new and democratic ways of promoting video artwork and reporting. Their programs connected artists, independent videomakers, programmers, and social activists, and covered political topics such as the environmental movement, U.S. healthcare, and the Iraq War.
History
Deep Dish Television was launched in 1986 by the ongoing production collective Paper Tiger Television. DeeDee Halleck was a founding member of both organizations. Starting with their Opening Series in 1986 and ending with We Interrupt This Program in 2018, Deep Dish Television distributed the work of independent videomakers, filmmakers, and activists in curated series on a variety of political topics.
In 2005, Deep Dish Television broadcast the series Shocking and Awful: A Grassroots Response to War and Occupation investigating the impact of the U.S. invasion of Iraq. The series was later featured at the Whitney Museum's 2006 Biennial Exhibition and the Museum of Modern Art's "Theater of Operations: Gulf Wars 1991-2011" exhibition from 2019 to 2020. Deep Dish TV became known for their criticism of the Iraq War, and later produced extensive coverage of the World Tribunal on Iraq, the International Commission of Inquiry on Crimes Against Humanity of the Bush Administration, and the Winter Soldier Eyewitness Accounts of the Iraq and Afghanistan Occupations.
In addition to their television programming, Deep Dish Television frequently organized and participated in film festivals, conferences, screenings, panel discussions, exhibitions, and speaking tours across the United States. They also had a history of advocacy for public access media and collaboration with other independent media organizations, including Democracy Now!, Free Speech TV, Indymedia, and DIVA TV.
Programming
Deep Dish Television's archives are held at Fales Library. Many of their productions have also been uploaded to their YouTube and Vimeo platforms. The hundreds of programs distributed by Deep Dish Television were packaged in the following series:
The Opening Series, 1986
Deep Dish Cooks Up a Second Series, 1988
Fearless TV for the 90s, 1990
Public Access: Spigot for Bigots or Channels for Change?, 1990
DIVA TV: Collections from this Activist Collective, 1990
...Will be Televised: Video Documents from Asia, 1990
News You Can Use, 1990
Green Screen: Grassroots Views of the Environmental Crisis, 1990
The Gulf Crisis Project, 1990-1991
The Lannan Foundation Presents: Writers Uncensored, 1991
Ideas and Power, 1991
Behind Censorship: The Assault on Civil Liberties, 1991
Celebrating 20 Years of Public Access Television, 1991
ROAR! A Paper Tiger TV Mini Retrospective, 1991
Unheard Voices, 1992
Beyond the Browning of America, 1992
Siempre Trabajando: Latinos and Labor, 1992
Rock the Boat, 1992
Visions of Ourselves, 1993
L.A. Freewaves: Experimental Video from Southern California, 1993
News You Can Use, 1993
Democracy in Communications, 1993
Sick and Tired of Being Sick and Tired, 1994
News You Can Use, 1994
Emergency Programming: Mumia Abu-Jamal, 1995
Breaking Conventions, 1996
America Behind Bars, 1997
Showdown in Seattle, 1999
Breaking the Bank, 2000
Crashing the Party, 2000
Inauguration, 2001
Shocking and Awful: A Grassroots Response to War and Occupation, 2005
The World Tribunal in Iraq, 2006
Waves of Change: The Many Voices of the Global Village, 2007
Nothing is Safe: Israel's 2006 War on Lebanon, 2008
Winter Soldier, 2008
DIY Media: Movement Perspectives on Critical Moments, 2008
Rent-to-Own: Poverty Project, 2009
Uprooted: A Grassroots Examination of the Politics of Migration, 2011
An American Nightmare: Black Labor and Liberation, 2015
We Interrupt This Program, 2018
References
External links
Deep Dish TV Records, Fales Library and Special Collections at New York University Special Collections American public access television shows Public television in the United States Television organizations in the United States