LUX Evening Course: Film and Collectivity

Introduction: To make films is to do politics
This introductory session will look at some of the reasons why, for a short period in the 1970s, film was considered by many as the best, if not the only, way to do politics. Two short films will be screened: Women of the Rhondda (1973) and Cinema Action’s The Miner’s Film (1975).

Berwick Street Film Collective – Nightcleaners (1975)
Following a screening of seminal British political film Nightcleaners (1975) by the Berwick Street Film Collective there will be a short discussion of the film and its effect on British film culture. (NB this will be a special extended session)

London Women’s Film Group – The Amazing Equal Pay Show (1974)
Following a screening of LWFG’s little seen film there will be a discussion of the impact of second wave feminism on British film culture in the 1970s.

Cinema Action – So That You Can Live (1982)
After Cinema Action’s earlier, overtly political, films So That You Can Live signaled a new direction for the collective. This session will look at the film in relation to other political documentaries broadcast on television at this time, and to the current state of “political documentary” on television, in the cinema and online.

Marc Karlin – A Dream from the Bath (1985) and Haircut (1998)
After disbanding the Berwick Street Film Collective, group member Marc Karlin went on to make many films for television including these two short films. After the screening there will be a discussion of “independence” and a close reading of an interview with Karlin published by Screen in 1980.

Working Together?
This final session will feature excerpts of films by contemporary artists such as the Otolith Group and Petra Bauer, followed by a critical discussion of notions of collectivity and the uses of politics in contemporary practice.