Series: New Television
Program: New Television
Episode: 606
Date: 1989-01-01
Duration: 00:00:48

Subject: Child abuse
People: Applebroog, Ida; Beth B.
Copyright Holder: B Movies, Inc. (Ida Applebroog and Beth B. Productions)

Clip Description
Artists Beth B. and Ida Applebroog use videotaped performance combined with figurative drawing and captions to create a disturbing, provocative program about the unthinkable yet prevalent occurrence of child victimization. The script for the program is delivered in brief monologues by a cast of several men and women reading statements from various texts, including the writings of Freud and the testimonies of Josef Mengele's victims. It is then intercut with a boy's voice repeating "I am not a bad person" to powerful and moving effect.
In black and white and color, this work plays short sentences and phrases off one another. Spoken texts include excerpts from Joel Steinberg's 1988 trial, testimonies from Josef Mengele's victims, and Sigmund Freud's case history of 1919 "A Child Is Being Beaten."

Program Description
This episode of "New Television" features Ida Applebroog's and Beth B.'s "Belladonna" and Burt Barr's "The Dogs."

In black and white and color, "Belladonna" plays short sentences and phrases off one another. Spoken texts include excerpts from Joel Steinberg's 1988 trial, testimonies from Josef Mengele's victims, and Sigmund Freud's case history of 1919 "A Child Is Being Beaten." The work is approximately 13 minutes long. Copyright: B Movies, Inc.; Ida Applebroog and Beth B. Productions.

"The Dogs" is set on a bright, summer day at a seemingly benign seashore inhabited by a nervous, beer-drinking protagonist and a dark, panting dog. The work alternately shows a man seated in a living room interior, drinking glasses of beer and swallowing pills, and walking down an overrun path to the ocean. Along the way, he is startled or distracted by the sound of a barking dog. Eventually, he reaches the ocean. Directed by Burt Barr, "The Dogs" is approximately 19 minutes long. Copyright: Burt Barr.

Series Description
The New Television Workshop originated at WGBH, a public broadcasting station in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1974 to support the creation and development of experimental video art. This experimental programming included dance, drama, music, performance and visual arts on video and film. As early as 1968, WGBH was committed to the development of video art through residency programs, with artists such as Nam June Paik, and the "Rockefeller Artists-in-Television" project. Many of these early works (pre-1974) were broadcast both locally and nationally.

As an umbrella for arts related programming, the Workshop included "Artist's Showcase, " "Frames of Reference, " "Dance for Camera, " "Poetry Breaks," and "New Television," as well as acquired arts programming. Individual works were created for "Visions," a series produced by WNET (New York), and "Alive From Off Center," a series produced by KTCA (St. Paul - Minneapolis). The Contemporary Art Television (CAT) Fund was co-founded by the Workshop and Boston's Institute for Contemporary Art (ICA) in the 1980's, to commission works by video artists. In 1993 the Workshop ceased production at WGBH.

See also: http://main.wgbh.org/wgbh/NTW/FA/TITLES/Belladonna208.HTML