Critical Writing Index

Channelling Mayhem: Winnipeg cable TV's golden age

by Alison Gillmor

cbc.ca, Apr. 12, 2006

This article discusses Daniel Barrow's Winnipeg Babysitter, screened at the 2006 Images Festival. Winnipeg Babysitter is a collected program of cable access shows from the peak of volunteer-run era of televsion. Barrow's program, though seemingly a sentimental journey for Winnipegers, is more acurately a mourning testamonial to lo-fi enthusiasm and the value of open access to the airwaves. The shows, all aired on Videon cable 11, were shot primarily in the eighties and the early nineties until the CRTC ruled in 1997 that cabel stations no longer had to offer facilites to whoever volunteered. Highlights include, Math with Marty, Metal Inquisition, Survival and the Pollock & Pollock Gossip Show. Daniel Barrow accompanies the screening with a written narrative on overhead projector.

ITEM 2006.033 – available for viewing in the Research Centre

Videos, Artworks and Artists Cited

Winnipeg BabysitterBarrow, Daniel

SurvivalMaddin, Guy

The Pollock & Pollock Gossip ShowPollock, Ron & Natalie