‘All You Need’s an Excuse’ is an exhibition with The London Community Video Archive (LCVA), an organisation set up in 2016 to preserve, archive and share community videos made in the 1970s/80s in London and the South East. LUX has invited the LCVA to present videos from the archive selected by local community and activist groups. For community video projects, creating spaces where videos can be screened and the audience are able to share and reflect on their experiences is as integral to the process as making the video. The videos on show have been chosen by community and campaign groups local to LUX for their continuing relevance. Alongside the screenings and events programme, the library at LUX will function as a space to view other videos and ephemera from the archive.
The exhibition’s title “All You Need’s an Excuse” is the name of a film made by Liberation Films, a community film and video group that ran from 1969 to 1980 in North London. The film, made in 1972, follows the actions and impact of a community group based on the opposite side of Hampstead Heath to LUX. Exemplary of community video projects, the film functions as both a document of how the group worked together to clear and occupy unused private land for use as a safe play space, and as an invitation to its viewers to carry out similar projects. Similarly, it is the intention of the exhibition to create a space for action, reflection and discussion.
Organised by Ed Webb-Ingall and Charlotte Procter.
This project is supported by the BFI Film Audience Network as part of Changing Times: Shifting Ground.