Shoot Shoot Shoot: British Avant-Garde Film of the 1960s and 1970s
March 4, 2008 - March 11, 2008
The London Film-makers’ Co-operative was founded in 1966, modeled after the artist-led distribution center created by Jonas Mekas and the New American Cinema Group. Both had a policy of open membership, accepting all submissions without judgment, but the LFMC was unique in incorporating the three key aspects of artist filmmaking—production, distribution, and exhibition—within a single facility.
Early pioneers like Len Lye, Antony Balch, Margaret Tait, and John Latham had already made remarkable personal films in Britain, but by the mid-sixties, interest in “underground film” was growing. On his arrival from New York, Stephen Dwoskin demonstrated and encouraged the possibilities of experimental filmmaking, and the Co-op soon became a dynamic center for the discussion, production, and presentation of avant-garde film. Several key figures such as Peter Gidal, Malcolm LeGrice, John Smith, and Chris Welsby went on to become internationally celebrated. Many others, like Annabel Nicolson, worked across the boundaries between film and performance and remain relatively unknown, or at least unseen.
The Co-op existed in hand-to-mouth fashion in a series of run-down buildings. Physical hardship contributed to the rigorous, formal nature of the films produced during this period. While the Structural approach dominated, informing both interior and landscape tendencies, the British filmmakers also made significant innovations with multiscreen films and expanded cinema events, producing works whose essence was defined by their ephemerality.
Mark Webber
Series Curator
Tuesday, March 4, 2008
7:30 p.m. Shoot Shoot Shoot: Program 1
Materialist films from the early-’70s British underground explore duration and the raw physicality of the celluloid strip. Works by David Crosswaite, Mike Dunford, Chris Garratt, Marilyn Halford, Mike Leggett, Annabel Nicolson, Lis Rhodes, and Guy Sherwin.
Tuesday, March 11, 2008
7:30 p.m. Shoot Shoot Shoot: Program 2
Artists use language, landscape, and the human body to create works that explore the essential properties of the film medium. Works by Stephen Dwoskin, Gill Eatherley, Peter Gidal, Malcolm Le Grice, William Raban, John Smith, and Chris Welsby.
This series is being made available on the fortieth anniversary of the LFMC to support the release of the DVD Shoot Shoot Shoot: British Avant-Garde Film of the 1960s & 1970s. The two programs contain films that are not on the DVD and some that were not included in the original 2002–2004 tour. Shoot Shoot Shoot is a LUX project curated by Mark Webber. Thanks to Ben Cook and Mike Sperlinger for their generous assistance with making our presentations possible.
