The Vasulka Effect is a documentary portraying the life and work of pioneers of video art Steina and Woody Vasulka. Their history with video dates back to the late 1960's when they lived and worked in New York. Some have called them the grandparents of the “YouTube generation”, others “grandparents of video art”, seemingly forgotten by the art world.

With humor and serenity, they are struggling with finances and how to leave their media archives to the world. We start to understand the major impact video had on art and society from the 60's until now, a period referred to as the second renaissance, where media art contributed to the decentralization of art and corporate media. With only a handful of allies we see them being rediscovered by art collectors and museums. The revolutionary nature of video and video art movement anticipated the decentralization of media and not so quiet revolution against censorship.

Woody Vasulka (born Bohuslav Vašulka, 1937, Brno, Czechoslovakia) studied metallurgy and mechanics at the School of Industrial Engineering in Brno. In 1960 he settled in Prague to study television and film production at the Academy of Performing Arts, also writing poetry and producing short films.

Steina (born Steinunn Briem Bjarnadóttir, 1940, Reykjavík, Iceland) studied languages, violin and music theory at the conservatory in Prague.

The couple met in the early 1960s, married in 1964, and 1965 emigrated to New York where Steina worked as a freelance musician, and Woody edited industrial films at Harvey Lloyd Productions. In New York they began showing video art at the Whitney Museum and founded The Kitchen in 1971. Steina and Woody both became Guggenheim fellows: Steina in 1976, and Woody in 1979.

Hrafnhildur Gunnarsdóttir is a filmmaker and activist born in Reykjavik, Iceland who has worked extensively in film and TV as a director and director of photography. She received her BFA from the San Francisco Art Institute in 1989 and resided in the San Francisco Bay Area for more than 15 years, working on documentary films such as Alive in Limbo (ITVS) which received Locarno Human Rights Special Mention and the Spirit Award from BIFF; Senorita Extraviada by Lourdes Portillo, which received a Special Documentary Jury Award at Sundance Film Festival and more. Hrafnhildur has dedicated much of her time to working on social and labor issues for filmmakers.