Lanesville TV News Buggy

“Trolling for news we call it,” says Bart Friedman a minute into this video, as he pushes down a road the Lanesville TV News Buggy – a baby carriage filled with video equipment, spilling over with wires. The buggy allows for easy transportation of equipment as the Videofreex make their way throughout Lanesville, interviewing residents on their daily activity. Although fairly ordinary – a visit to the lake, a small bit about a neighbor’s new electric golf cart, and an introduction to a newborn baby – the footage has an air of genuineness and all of the interactions are amicable. The particularities of the content do less to capture one’s attention and more to show the friendly integration the Videofreex achieved in their adopted up-state New York town. The community environment becomes enfolded within the TV news environment in a recursive, hyper-local kind of coverage, each bit ending with one the Freex saying to their neighbors “see you on TV!” This intimate feedback loop circulating between the Freex and their community is precisely the kind of pirate TV they were after, and showcases the main themes of Lanesville TV.

— Nicolas Holt, 2016