Series: New Television
Program: New Television
Episode: 406
Date: 1987-01-01
Duration: 00:01:01

Subject: Teenage girls; Girls; Puberty
People: Segalove, Ilene
Copyright Holder: Ilene Segalove

Clip Description
Writer and director Ilene Segalove plays herself in this dramatization of puberty. As "Little Ilene," she soaks up her Uncle Harry's cliches about womanhood, while downing ribs at a family barbecue, surrounded by Wonderbread and Velveeta cheese packages. She attempts to buy a bra, and after seeing "Gidget Goes Hawaiian," begins to experience longing for boys. She outlines a rapid succession of crushes on boys (played by actual youngsters). The work evokes the period of the early sixties with brightly colored sets. Vibrant period costumes, designed by Leone Webster, add to the overall themes and moods of the work.

Program Description
This episode of "New Television" features Lee Eiferman's "Ena's Adventures, Part II" and Ilene Segalove's "My Puberty."

"Ena's Adventures, Part II" is an inventive western fantasy based on radio serials of the 1930's that touches on the mysteries of clairvoyance, the dangers of the desert, and the socialist themes of labor and management. The work is approximately 45 minutes long. Produced by Joan Albert. Written and directed by Lee Eiferman. Copyright: Lee Eiferman.

"My Puberty." presents a humorous series of video vignettes, drawn from a feminist perspective, that places the viewer in the artist's last days of girlhood. "My Puberty" is approximately 10 minutes long. Produced by Karen Murphy. Directed by Ilene Segalove. Copyright: Ilene Segalove.

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/My145.HTML