Global Village Video formed following the meeting of John Reilly and Rudi Stern in 1969. At the time of their meeting Reilly had just completed a series of tapes documenting the Woodstock Festival with co-collaborator Ira Schneider (who later served as president of Raindance Foundation, 1972–1994). Reilly, Schneider, and Stern partnered to establish “the first closed-circuit video theater to show underground [video] work,” to be called The Global Village Video Center. The 2013 "New York Times" Obituary for Reilly states that the early Global Village Video “shows” “amounted to a countercultural feast: regular visitors included Abbie Hoffman, Jerry Rubin, and Timothy Leary. In 1971, the magazine "Art in America" called it the only commercial outlet for underground video.” Reilly, Schneider, and Stern showcased their multi-screen video works as well as featured the works of several other innovative video artists. The theater soon after moved to Broome Street in Lower Manhattan, where it also began holding video production workshops upon receiving a grant from the New York State Council for the Arts to support the creative use of video.