Media Burn Archive

The Media Burn Independent Video Archive contains over 6,000 videotapes.

The Media Burn Archive was founded in 2003 by Tom Weinberg after a 40-year-long career producing documentaries and being a major advocate for independent producers. In 1978, he created the show “Image Union,” which brought the work of independent film and videomakers to a Chicago television audience for the first time. His programs have won four Emmy awards, a Silver Circle lifetime achievement award from the Chicago/Midwest chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, and he shared in a duPont-Columbia University journalism award as a member of TVTV. “Media Burn” was the name of a remarkable 1975 countercultural event by San Francisco-based art and architecture group, ANT FARM. Curtis Schreier, Chip Lord, Doug Michels, and Uncle Buddy took responsibility for a modified 1959 Cadillac Biarritz convertible smashing through a wall of burning television sets in the Cow Palace parking lot. Doug Hall appeared as President Kennedy. This site was, in no small way, inspired by that classic Ant Farm event and video. The first use of the phrase “Media Burn” was in a monograph and book proposal by Tom Weinberg in 1969. It is still in process. mediaburn.org is a project of the Fund for Innovative TV, a 501(c)3 nonprofit and Chicago-based producers of quality alternative nonfiction video including The 90’s and Chicago Slices.