Révolution VHS

In the 80s, the VHS stirred up the winds of freedom from the United States to the USSR. Discover the amazing and crazy story of the little black box’s rise to cult status. The last VCR manufacturer stopped producing them in 2016. But VHS lives on. An entire generation grew up with video cassettes. The current revival is also due to them revolutionizing our lives. Being able to record shows liberated people from TV programs’ tyranny; that provoked studios and TV channels’ ire as their cinema and ad revenue diminished. The second revolution sparked by VHS, camcorders and video rental shops was cheap movie production, which allowed for the creation of small budget movies that anybody could watch at home. Pornography thus enabled a massive video market growth, which in turn made gore more popular. For better or worse, VHS pushed the boundaries of decency and shaped droves of teenagers’ imagination through its horror and kitsch movies. Using testimonies by pioneers and witnesses of the times, delve into the feverish visual culture the media generated – with far-fetched examples of canine television games, seduction manuals, aerobics class while holding a baby, among others. (Arte)