The Propaganda Box

The daily routines of waiting bus riders and passers-by at the Liberty Pole have been altered a little bit lately, courtesy of the Propaganda Box - a red, white and blue crate housing a television and DVD player playing independently produced documentaries and videos in a continuous loop out to the street.

The daily routines of waiting bus riders and passers-by at the Liberty Pole have been altered a little bit lately, courtesy of the Propaganda Box - a red, white and blue crate housing a television and DVD player playing independently produced documentaries and videos in a continuous loop out to the street.

The Propaganda Box operates from around 7:30am to 8pm at the Liberty Pole on Thursdays and Friday as well as the corner of Monroe Ave and Sumner Place on Wednesdays. The content comes from local and independent video producers and is changed daily.

Most people choose to ignore the sounds and images coming out of the Propaganda Box, however many are intrigued by the contraption and its messages. Reactions to the box vary widely, some are confused as to why it's there, "according to that thing on the side over there, that paper, it
supposedly just broadcasts the facts of what's going on over in Iraq and what-not, but I don't know what it's really talking about," one observer said.
"It's a wonder it hasn't gotten stolen," said another. A small number of folks have reacted negatively, "Frankly, I think it's anti-American propaganda," another said when an indymedia reported asked his opinion.

Many people, however, enjoy the Propaganda Box and some even seek out its programming. One watcher told Indymedia, "I usually come early because I take my son to camp and I don't go to work until 9, so i stay here 'till the next bus. I like it. I listen to it and it gives me something to do. I get the news. Sometimes I don't have time to watch the news at the house - I'm busy all the time." Another watcher, donning a huge Kerry button, says he found out about the Propaganda Box from the City Paper and purposely came over to see the documentary OutFoxed.

Rochester Indymedia interviewed Bleu Cease, the creator of the Propaganda Box about why he made it and what he hopes comes out of the project.

"I'm a student at the visual studies workshop, so I do film, video, photo, bookmaking, etc. This project kind of grew out of my interest of moving my own work out into the street - outdoor projects, street-scape interventions.
I just started collecting these films for my own interest, and started realizing there was enough of these around, so i built a box and tried to find a few venues around town where there is a lot of foot traffic. That's the main intention, [to] basically show the public, that may or may not be tuned in, what is being produced and what is available for free on the web.

It's just sort of something that's available. It's just like a public offering of something that's a little bit absurd, a little bit ridiculous. You walk by and there happens to be a television that's sitting there. Just intervening in the landscape.

The release of Fahrenheit 9/11 was the perfect opportunity to put other films out on the street. Someone was presenting opinions in a pretty mainstream venue, presenting information in a very different way. [However], other people are commenting on what's going on in the world other than Michael Moore. People like Noam Chomsky and Amy Goodman are much more informative, and serve a different role in disseminating information than Michael Moore."

When asked how he made the box, Bleu replied; "I just scrounged the TV, ordered the player and built the roof. It's an old shipping crate that I modified and put speakers into it. It's rough, I built it assuming it's going to get broken into once or twice." So far though, the worst incidents have been when one individual pulled out the power cord after an argument, and some urination on the side of the box.

Blue says that he's, "getting really positive responses - for the most part. On Monroe Avenue all the neighbors have been stopping by, they're really glad it's there. Actually, each time it's been there people have come out and said we're going to get this film."

Bleu adds though, "There's been a few altercations where people have been unhappy with the film got into arguments with people who were watching." But Bleu doesn't see this as negative at all, "that's what it's all about for me, just creating a scene where there's some political discourse and some civic engagement, which, in my opinion, is lacking in this town."

When asked if that means that Bleu is willing to show videos produced by right-wingers, he says, "this project has shown me is that if we had to talk about 2 parties, left and right - which it seems we're forced into that paradigm right now - it seems that what you find is that if start looking for recent political films, it doesn't seem like republican filmmakers are making
nearly as many as democratic film makers or people [on the left]. They don't feel like they have to respond to the current administration, they agree with it.

What I'm trying to capture here is that there's been a real response [to the Bush administration]. I certainly would show anything from any political camp, because a real important component of this is [...] about putting something on the streets of Rochester - something other than a billboard, other than a Labatts advertisement."