VIDEO REVIEW : Art-Tape ‘Visions of U.S.’ Worth Viewing at EZTV

Much of the art-video world is now no more accessible--to the public, or the would-be artist--than it was a decade ago, when video was only fitfully beginning to be recognized as a viable art form. Art-video audiences are probably the only TV viewers who aren’t couch potatoes: They must still travel to such places as the Long Beach Museum of Art or the American Film Institute for festivals and exhibitions, since the supposedly vast cable world remains closed to such work.

The would-be artist has to wonder if such an expensive and still restricted medium is even worth the effort.

The annual “Visions of U.S.” video contest, sponsored by Sony Corp. and organized by AFI, doesn’t entirely solve the problem. You still have to get out of your home to see it--specifically that haven of independent video, EZTV, at 8547 Santa Monica Blvd. in West Hollywood, where 1992 winners and runners-up screen tonight at 7:30.

But as an outlet for anyone of any age with a home video camera to make any kind of video they want, “Visions of U.S.” remains a model of its kind. Much as the virtually extinct high school and college film societies used to provide an entry for no-budget independent filmmakers, a venue such as “Visions” smashes some barriers and allows winners to be seen in such video festivals as L.A. Freewaves and the AFI’s annual video festival shown both locally and in Washington.

With EZTV’s exhibition, the visibility of “Visions” has expanded. Seen as a group, it’s very easy to question the seemingly arbitrary selection of some works for a top prize and others as also-rans. There is no more affecting video in the group than Lauren Malkasian’s “The Last Run,” her amusing tribute to a milkman named Bill on his last day of door-to-door delivery in Boyle Heights. It is certainly no less original nor skillfully made than the nonfiction entry that won top prize, Mary Starks’ “Through the Eyes of a Child,” a look at the kids of South-Central’s 102nd Street elementary school responding to the April ’92 unrest.

And while Stark’s video goes so far as to suggest that some kids weren’t worried when the burning began, Malkasian’s work more meaningfully shows a poor community of Latinos, whites and other immigrants tolerating and even loving each other.

So ignore the categories and simply watch the work. There are the dramatic experimentations of Kevin Adams’ ode to victims of gay bashers, “Can’t Take That Away From Me,” or Trang Tran’s structuralist approach to cosmetic surgery and Asian facial types, “Aletheia.” On the other emotional end are the we-are-family sentiments of Christopher Shank’s music video “Blood Is Thicker Than Water” or Mo Murphy’s ironic Skid Row-located updating of “Downtown.”

An unavoidable tinge of amateurism runs through “Visions,” but that’s as it should be. The networks promote the notion that homemade video runs from taking shots of Aunt Millie parachuting into the back yard to the family pooch riding in the front seat of a roller coaster with paws raised. But a different personal universe--with political visions not too far away--can just as easily come through the home-video mediums ranging from regular 8 millimeter to Super VHS.

Super-8 film was originally an easy, more visual way to document the family growing up, until visionary filmmakers discovered the form. The same phenomenon has happened with home video, which isn’t just for home anymore.