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The Satellite Video Exchange Society (SVES) was incorporated as a non-profit, charitable and educational body six months following Matrix. Many of the founders had met during the organizing of Matrix, or at the conference itself, including Michael Goldberg, Patricia Hardman, Charlie Keast, Gan Matsushita, Janet Miller, Shawn Preus, Kazumi Tanaka, Paula Wainberg and Paul Wong. Additional signatories were Renee Baert, Annastacia McDonald, and Rick Ward.As outlined to Matrix participants, the Video Inn Library was the primary purpose of the Society. The seminal role of a publicly accessible international video library was outlined clearly in an unalterable provision in its constitution. The focus was on the free access to, and free exchange of, alternative video.
"We felt that the free flow of alternative information through tape exchange could contribute to decentralizing media away from the one-way system inherent to broadcast television. We were experimenting with video technology and styles, and with the relationship of the media itself. While we were devoted to facilitating global video exchange, were such a movement to limit itself to video producers it would become a closed network. That’s why we decided our core service would be a non-commercial video library, where the public could choose from a wide variety of themes and genres largely ignored by the media." - Michael Goldberg
The Video Inn, the public face of SVES and home of its non-commercial video library, opened at 261 Powell Street, occupying the ground floor of a typical turn of the century, low-rise commercial building between Main and Gore Streets, on August 1, 1973 (though it had been responsive to community needs in an unofficial capacity for several months). Video Inn’s name was a play on both the video input of a recording device and the rooming house in which it was located. Established as a collective, the Video Inn demanded great commitment from its founding members, whose efforts went largely unpaid.
Sources:
Crista Dahl Media Library & Archive
"Making Video 'In'", Editor Jennifer Abbott, Video In Studios, 2000.
"Anamnesia: Unforgetting", Editor Amy Kazymerchyk, VIVO Media Arts Centre, 2013.
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Video Inn: 261 Powell StreetCirca 1980s
Video Inn, 261 Powell Street, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Credits:Photo: Paul Wong
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Original Video Inn sign outside 261 Powell StreetCirca 1973
Video Inn, 261 Powell Street, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
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York Rooms tenant outside Video InnCirca 1970s
Video Inn, 261 Powell Street, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Credits:Photographer: Paul Wong
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1973 Day Book, pages 7 & 8August 10- 15, 1973
Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
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Video Inners at work1979
Video Inn, 261 Powell Street, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Credits:Photographer: Keigo Yanamoto
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Vancouver Video News wall1975
Video Inn, 261 Powell Street, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
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Video Inners meetMid 1970s
Video Inn, 261 Powell Street, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
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1973 Day Book, Pages 19 & 20August 24 - 31, 1973
Video Inn, 261 Powell Street, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
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1973 Day Book, Pages 21 & 22First week of September 1973
Video Inn, 261 Powell Street, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
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Video Inners at work1979
Video Inn, 261 Powell Street, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Credits:Photo: Keigo Yanamoto
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Video screening at Video InnCirca 1970s
Video Inn, 261 Powell Street, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
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Fifth Annivesary: "V" CenterpieceJuly 1978
Video Inn, 261 Powell Street, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
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Fifth Anniversary: PartyJuly 29, 1978
Video Inn, 261 Powell Street, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
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