Hells Angels Party

In a conversation with one of the Hells Angels at a party the motorcycle gang has thrown in Manhattan, the interviewee introduces “Kenny, from the Videofreex” to his friends, commenting (presumably explaining the Videofreex project): “like low class society type shit.” At the Hells Angels party, the Videofreex exemplify their position as a documentarian group for alternative media, navigating the cramped space of the party to conduct interviews with members of the highly controversial Hells Angels group.

Amidst the sonic background of a live band and a talkative party crowd, the Videofreex speak with members of Hells Angels as countercultural peers rather than vessels of authority, which are painted throughout the conversations as subjects of distrust. One of the angels mentions that they threw the party to “show [they] can get along with anybody.” This sentiment is later echoed by another Angel whose conversation with a businessman wearing a suit among leather-clad bikers is recorded by the Videofreex. The backdrop of the party and the content of the conversations — often explicitly critiquing American systems of power, authority, and political organization — contextualize the work the Videofreex are doing as a guerilla filmmaker group renegotiating the ‘proper’ spaces and subjects of public media.

— Charlotte Strange