Evening Course:
Works from the Collection: Politics and Protest

Tuesdays 18^th, 25^nd September, and 2^nd, 9^th October 2018, 6pm – 9pm

This four-week course offers the opportunity to see and discuss rarely screened works from LUX’s collection. Each week the course leader, Dan Kidner, will choose a number of films filed under LUX’s collection category: Politics and Protest.

Through the lens of this selection we will explore the limits of the collection and discuss how it was formed from the archives of the London Filmmakers Co-op (LFMC) and London Electronic Arts (LEA, formerly London Video Arts). Each week Kidner will focus on a few key and neglected works and put them in historical and theoretical context, while slowly building a picture of the political commitments of successive generations of artists working with film, video and digital media. 50 years since the global uprisings of 1968, the course will provide an opportunity to discuss the politics and protest movements of the 1960s and compare them to those of our own present moment.

Week 1: Liberty
(Tue 18 Sept, 6pm – 9pm)

The global spread of left-political ideas in the late 1960s inspired national liberations struggles, the women’s movement and gay liberation. Many artists and filmmakers sought to both record these struggles and invent new radical forms equal to them. This week we will look at the work of filmmakers documenting these movements in the 1960s, as well as similar attempts to capture contemporary social and political movements such as Occupy.

Week 2: Community
(Tue 25 Sept, 6pm – 9pm)

The concept of community has always been important for the left. This week we will look at how this concept has changed for successive generations. From the work of video activists in the 1970s and 1980s, and the ‘social engagement’ of artists in 1990s, to more reflective forms of essay filmmaking in the 2000s which look back at the struggles of earlier generations.

Week 3: Identity
(Tue 2 Oct, 6pm – 9pm)

This week we look at how identity politics emerged in the 1980s and transformed political film and video. The recent resurgence of interest in identity politics has inspired a new generation to reflect on earlier debates, but also to explore new imaginaries.

Week 4: Revolution
(Tue 9 Oct, 6pm – 9pm)

Many political filmmakers and artists in the 1960s looked back to the revolutionary filmmakers of the Russian avant-garde such as Dziga Vertov and Aleksandr Medvedkin, adapting forms and distribution strategies for a new age. This week we will look at films made between the late 1960s and now that reflect on the history of the revolution and its contemporary relevance.