Metropolis Video
 |
|
| Formation | 1975 |
|---|---|
| Extinction | 1977 |
| Type | Film and video makers |
| Headquarters | New York City |
|
Key people
|
Paul Dougherty |
| Website | www |
Paul Dougherty
John Hazard
Jeff Hodges
Pat Ivers
Steven Lawrence
Michael Owen
Metropolis Video was a group of filmmakers and video makers who documented on video the early years of the punk rock music scene in New York City, from 1975 to 1977. They shot footage of numerous punk rock and new wave bands at CBGB, the downtown music club, which in 1975 had been open only two years.
Much of Metropolis Video's work was shown on public access cable television. In October 1977 there was a two-day show of their work at The Kitchen, New York’s premiere avant-garde and experimental arts center, which was located in SoHo at that time.
The New York Times music critic John Rockwell wrote that because of Metropolis Video's work and their cable TV series, "the efflorescence of the New York underground rock scene at the CBGB club will live on past the present moment.
In 1975, seven film and videomakers who were then in their early 20s, Paul Dougherty, John Hazard, Jeff Hodges, Pat Ivers, Steven Lawrence, Michael Owen and Tom Zafian, came together to document the early punk rock scene at CBGB, which in 1975 was a relatively new music club on The Bowery, in Manhattan, New York City. The members of Metropolitan Video met while they were working at Manhattan Cable TV's public access television (MCTV) department, where community members could get free training in video production, borrow equipment and schedule their programs for broadcast. In 1972 the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) had mandated that cable TV systems in the top 100 markets must provide public access, and by 1975, MCTV had become a major distribution hub for video experimentation, the YouTube of its day.
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