{"id":539173,"date":"2026-01-24T09:48:13","date_gmt":"2026-01-24T09:48:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/539173\/"},"modified":"2026-01-24T09:48:13","modified_gmt":"2026-01-24T09:48:13","slug":"a-so-so-primer-of-free-speech-tv","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/539173\/","title":{"rendered":"A So-So Primer of Free Speech TV"},"content":{"rendered":"

Authenticity may be \u201cdangerous and expensive,\u201d per Tina Fey<\/a>, for those itching to bask in the harsh spotlight of mainstream celebrity. But it\u2019s still precious currency to creators determined to find an audience at all. <\/p>\n

Long before the internet rendered it possible for anyone with wifi to have their voice heard, the first wave of \u201celectronic democracy\u201d<\/a> was public-access television, a first-come, first-served platform for strangers to communicate with the general public \u2014 or, more accurately, anyone savvy, curious, or bored enough to tune in. David Shadrack Smith\u2019s archival documentary \u201cPublic Access<\/a>\u201d charts the medium\u2019s history in the heart of New York City, where the world\u2019s first channel debuted in 1971. On the far reaches of the television dial, authentic self-expression reigned supreme, free from the confines of commercial standards and practices.<\/p>\n

\"Yvette<\/a> \"Joe<\/a> <\/p>\n

With the help of extensive contextualizing voiceover from ex-Manhattan Cable Television staffers and principal artists, \u201cPublic Access\u201d shuffles through a bunch of programs in roughly chronological order to epitomize the medium\u2019s uninhibited identity. \u201cTV Party,\u201d ex-Factory member Glenn O\u2019Brien\u2019s ramshackle talk show co-hosted by Blondie\u2019s Chris Stein and directed by Amos Poe, shone a light on New and No Wave culture and gave viewers the first glimpse of Jean-Michel Basquiat\u2019s epigrammatic artwork. \u201cThe Grube Tube,\u201d an unfiltered live call-in show for eccentric Manhattanites, and \u201cSquirt TV,\u201d a pop-culture round-up hosted by a teenage Jake Fogelnest out of his bedroom, exemplified public access\u2019 handcrafted spirit \u2014 how anyone could be on television and reach like-minded outsiders.<\/p>\n

\u201cPublic Access\u201d illustrates how a social mandate from the Federal Communications Commission to serve local community interest eventually metastasized into a venue for genuinely outr\u00e9 programming. Smith correctly pinpoints the inception of consumer-grade technology and the rise of punk rock in New York as reasons for public access\u2019 cult-like success. The copious unscheduled airtime on Manhattan Cable Television\u2019s two channels (Channel C and D) indulged the hunger for \u201calternative\u201d media, where New York was ahead of the curve. The oft-surreal and sexually and politically progressive voices from the downtown underground saw mass media as a new cultural vanguard destined to be conquered.<\/p>\n

A throughline about censorship quickly materializes in \u201cPublic Access.\u201d A classic First Amendment fight between labor and management was born with video artist Anton Perich\u2019s \u201cMr. Fixit.\u201d The network quickly moved to censor a transgressive sitcom parody where soon-to-be-Ramones-manager Danny Fields tries to cure a TV repairman\u2019s hemorrhoids by sticking a lightbulb up his ass. In response to questions of \u201cappropriate\u201d content, Manhattan Cable created Channel J, a \u201cleased access\u201d channel where airtime slots weren\u2019t free, and producers were permitted to sell advertising. In other words, against the initial non-profit ethos of public access.<\/p>\n

Adult programming subsequently proliferated on Channel J. \u201cMidnight Blue,\u201d a thrice-weekly show where \u201cScrew\u201d magazine founder Al Goldstein \u201creported on the frontlines of the sexual revolution,\u201d aired alongside \u201cEmerald City,\u201d a news and variety show dedicated to gay culture. Straight and gay pornography was aired, albeit clumsily censored by the network. (Frequent, absurd debates over how long genitalia could remain on screen were conducted by management.) With Channel J, Smith illustrates that the anything-goes nature of public access was a double-edged sword. On the one hand, misogynistic content slipped through under the banner of sexual permissiveness, but on the other, sincerely informational material regarding post-Stonewall gay life and the AIDS crisis also had a home.<\/p>\n

The oddball footage in \u201cPublic Access,\u201d featuring the famous and obscure alike, ultimately belies the film<\/a>\u2019s insipid infrastructure. \u201cPublic Access\u201d too quickly falls into a monotonous rhythm as its episodic, box-checking structure emerges, with each show it profiles receiving roughly equal focus and treading approximately the same territory. By the time Smith gets around to the anti-commercial activism of \u201cPaper Tiger Television\u201d and the reggae-themed \u201cRockers TV,\u201d \u201cPublic Access\u201d has long since worn out its welcome. Worse, the well-sourced public access clips start to unproductively bleed together<\/p>\n

Smith \u2014 a former producer for \u201cNational Geographic Explorer\u201d and a veteran of travel and lifestyle docuseries like \u201cTaste the Nation with Padma Lakshmi\u201d \u2014 also bites off more than he can chew by attempting to make \u201cPublic Access\u201d an all-encompassing historical primer. The film\u2019s first half successfully dovetails certain obvious social markers with the rise of public access; by the second half, Smith awkwardly gestures towards MTV co-opting public access aesthetics and the popularity of \u201cWayne\u2019s World\u201d as evidence of the medium flirting with mainstream popularity. Later, in between highlighting \u201cThe Robin Byrd Show,\u201d he clumsily delves into public access surviving mayor Rudy Giuliani\u2019s gentrification campaign and Congress\u2019 (ultimately unsuccessful) bipartisan push to restrict adult programming via an opt-in cable system. The film\u2019s tedious narrative structure ultimately serves as an ill-fitting clothesline for a survey of cultural history.<\/p>\n

Most damningly, Smith stubbornly adopts a conventional approach to decidedly unconventional material. Editor Geoff Gruetzmacher occasionally adopts a \u201csampledelia\u201d<\/a> mixtape approach to the abundance of footage, flipping between straitlaced and avant-garde clips with delirious abandon to simulate the experience of actually watching the programming. Most of the time, though, \u201cPublic Access\u201d formally reflects a bland 101-style synopsis that would neatly fit alongside the dozens of cookie-cutter documentaries that clutter streaming libraries. (The film\u2019s opening teaser would neatly serve as a Netflix preview.) The rib-poking voiceover, which might as well have been accompanied by talking-head interviews, repeatedly underlines the groundbreaking quality of public access in a way that suggests the audience might forget. \u201cPublic Access\u201d frequently does a disservice to its actual material, which sits at the nexus of community service and avant-garde art, by having its sound and imagery constantly restate one another.<\/p>\n

Near the beginning of \u201cPublic Access,\u201d rock \u2018n\u2019 roll photographer Bob Gruen, who filmed numerous CBGB\u2019s performances that aired on the channels, explains how the Portapak camera he used to film his wife giving birth glitched at the moment when the doctor held up their child. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe funny thing about the video machine,\u201d he explains, \u201cis that it\u2019s somehow sensitive to emotions. When things get exciting, the machine gets excited.\u201d The same thing can be said about the narrowcast programming on public-access television, which, at its best, vibrated with sui generis excitement that predated and forecasted the early uncharted territory of the internet. \u201cPublic Access\u201d might satisfy curious individuals interested in the era (or possibly those who simply want to scan clips of classic pornography), but a documentary about alternative mass media ideally should have an authentically alternative sensibility. The film never gets excited. Instead, it tells you about excitement.<\/p>\n

Grade: C+<\/p>\n

\u201cPublic Access\u201d premiered at the 2026 Sundance<\/a> Film Festival. It is currently seeking U.S. distribution.<\/p>\n

Want to stay up to date on IndieWire\u2019s film\u00a0reviews<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0and critical thoughts?\u00a0Subscribe here<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0to our newly launched newsletter, In Review by David Ehrlich, in which our Chief Film Critic and Head Reviews Editor rounds up the best new reviews and streaming picks along with some exclusive musings \u2014\u00a0all only available to subscribers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Authenticity may be \u201cdangerous and expensive,\u201d per Tina Fey, for those itching to bask in the harsh spotlight…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":539174,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[171,1020,53,58297,11853,46541,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-539173","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-movies","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-film","10":"tag-movies","11":"tag-public-access","12":"tag-reviews","13":"tag-sundance","14":"tag-united-states","15":"tag-unitedstates","16":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115949450545225759","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/539173","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=539173"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/539173\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/539174"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=539173"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=539173"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=539173"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}