BAVC began when a group of media makers and activists met in January of 1976 to devise practical ways to encourage independent video-making in the Bay Area. With a small grant from the Rockefeller Foundation to conduct a needs assessment and feasibility study of the region’s media-making community, that small group spent the summer collecting information about what the region’s environment looked like for independent videomakers.
Among that study’s conclusions was a recommendation for “a regional video resource center with multi-faceted programs that concentrate on improving all aspects of video production and exhibition…” That video resource center came into existence when BAVC was incorporated on December 10, 1976. As new technologies have been introduced over the past four decades, BAVC has responded with dynamic programs and new training strategies, while remaining committed to our mission of serving independent media makers.
A full history of BAVC can be accessed here.