5130  YouTube includes surprises

Date: Sun, 19 Aug 2007 22:35:50 -0300
From: "Janis Kenyon" <Jantango@feedback.net.ar>
Subject: [Tango-L] YouTube includes surprises
To: "Tango-L" <Tango-L@MIT.EDU>

I was viewing YouTube today to see how many videos of tango there are on the
site. Then I began a search by names of milongueros--Ricardo Vidort, Ruben
Harymbat, Miguel Angel Balbi. I was stunned when I came upon three minutes
of a video I filmed of Ricardo Suarez in June 2000. Ricardo and I are the
only ones who have a copy. I invited him to talk about his life in tango
and gave him a copy of the two-hour filming. I viewed the entire filming
for the first time myself only last week, even though it was made more than
seven years ago. It didn't take long to discover the identity of the poster
by going to his website. He is teaching tango milonguero and travels to
Europe. He has several photos of Ricardo Suarez on his website. Ricardo
(at 83) is still working in his electrical repair shop in San Telmo to pay
the bills.

I don't know if Ricardo is aware that a three-minute clip of his video is on
the internet. What a surprise for me when I discovered something I filmed
got onto YouTube. I haven't the slightest idea of how to put a video on
YouTube.

Ruben Harymbat and Miguel Angel Balbi weren't aware of their existence on
the Internet until I informed them. All those hidden cameras are capturing
dancers without their knowledge or permission and being shown to the world
that demands immediate access.

Janis Kenyon
Buenos Aires

Date: Sun, 19 Aug 2007 23:59:35 -0500
From: ceverett@ceverett.com
Subject: Re: [Tango-L] YouTube includes surprises


On Sun, 19 Aug 2007 22:35:50 -0300, "Janis Kenyon"
<Jantango@feedback.net.ar> said:

>
> Ruben Harymbat and Miguel Angel Balbi weren't aware of their existence
> on the Internet until I informed them. All those hidden cameras are
> capturing dancers without their knowledge or permission and being shown
> to the world that demands immediate access.

On the other hand, I am reminded of the climactic scene in Blade Runner,
when a dying man talks about all the things he's seen in his life that
will be gone forever when he dies.

Yes it's an invasion. Maybe when they die and all their buddies die,
they would choose to be forgotten forever. And maybe not.

Christopher

Date: Mon, 20 Aug 2007 17:02:00 +0800
From: Kace <kace@pacific.net.sg>
Subject: Re: [Tango-L] YouTube includes surprises

ceverett@ceverett.com wrote:

> Yes it's an invasion. Maybe when they die and all their buddies die,
> they would choose to be forgotten forever. And maybe not.
>

I concur with Chris that perhaps not all these old milongueros want to be
forgotten like those who have already passed on.

There is a saying that "history is made by those who show up." If someone
refuse to participate in making tango's history, he cannot turn around and
complain his heritage has been hijacked away.

My opinion of the videos that were made on old milongueros is that they
are an invaluable documentation of a significant part of tango's
heritage. There
is no question their existence will help to connect future generations
of tangueros
to the past.

If trgentina's ministry of culture produced these videos to capture a
slice of the
country's culture and traditions, everyone would have considered it to
be as an
honorable service to their country.

But instead we ignore the big picture and haggle over if the milongueros
got a
fair deal from being featured in online videos which are not sold for money.
In any case, that quarrel is only between the two parties who are
involved in
the videos, as in who owns the proper copyright in question.

To my mind, there is absolutely no reason to condemn the existence
of such documentation of the past, and every reason to be thankful they
were
made at all --- in exactly the same way I feel when I was able to see a
film of an extinct animal species or a lost tribe on National Geographic
channel today.

Kace
tangosingapore.com