Undercurrents

In September 1993, two disillusioned television producers and a group of activists came together to explore the potential of using domestic HI8 camcorders to bring about social and environmental change. Undercurrents founders (Jamie Hartzell, Paul O'Connor, Zoe Broughton, and Thomas Harding) felt certain social issues were not being addressed by the mainstream media. Based in North London, they filmed and edited footage of the dramatic M11 link road protests. Under the name of Small World Media, they gathered video footage from activists all over the UK and decided to create an alternative distribution views and perspectives rarely heard or seen on mainstream television – it would become known as Undercurrents.

One of the issues covered was the introduction of the Criminal Justice Bill, whose varied measures included attempts to curtail large gatherings both of travelers and raves and make direct action protest a criminal offence. A second video compilation was released before the end of the year. Bands such as the Levellers included Undercurrents references on their CD sleeves. Radiohead have donated funds and comedian Mark Thomas allowed undercurrents to produce and distribute his first DVD to raise funds. Undercurrents was amongst the first groups which coined the phrase 'video activism'- the use of camcorders for social change. A co-founder, Thomas Harding, wrote The Video Activist Handbook published by Pluto Press. Undercurrents now distribute films via DVD and in 2009 they launched visionOntv - a peer-to-peer TV channel over the internet.