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LUX Mres Art – Moving Image Public Lecture: What was British independent film?

26 March, 2014
– 26 March, 2014
7pm
LUX
3rd Floor 18 Shacklewell Lane, London E8 2EZ
Image from Bright Eyes (1984) by Stuart Marshall

 
 
Independent film and video emerged in Britain in the 1970s as a fusion of politicised and aesthetic avant-gardes that was intent on intervening in the mainstream. Film collectives, feminist film-makers, activists as well as artists sought to produce new forms that might resist ideology. This struggle would take place both on the screen and in the institutions of power: television and cinema. Founded in 1974, the Independent Film-maker’s Association was part of a broad institutionalisation of the radical avant-garde, and was first conceived as a means of bringing together diverse strands of left film culture in the UK in order to campaign for funding and distribution via the BFI, Arts Council and BBC. By the 1980s, there was a credible ‘independent sector’ in the UK with a strong presence on the newly launched Channel 4 television. But to what degree was this intervention a success?
Colin Perry, a writer and researcher based at Central Saint Martins, will discuss the aims, ambitions and legacy of the moment and present a selection of clips from key films including: Nightcleaners (Berwick Street Film Collective, 1975), Riddles of the Sphinx (Peter Wollen and Laura Mulvey, 1978), Song of the Shirt (Sue Clayton and Jonathan Curling, 1979), For Memory (Marc Karlin, 1982) and Bright Eyes (Stuart Marshall, 1984).
LUX Mres Art: Moving Image Public Lecture Series is an ongoing series of presentations by key thinkers on contemporary moving image practice sponsored by the LUX / Central Saint Martins Mres Art: Moving Image programme
Mres Art: Moving Image
Over the past two decades, artists moving image has proven itself a dynamic and thriving area of art practice, to be encountered in the gallery, museum, cinema auditorium, and a host of other unexpected venues. But what about the rich and fascinating histories, theories and aesthetics that have led to artists turn to film and video? And what insights can a study of artists moving image offer us for understanding the diverse practices that now fill art spaces internationally as well as in the UK? A unique collaboration between LUX and Central St Martins College of Art has created a research led masters degree to address these questions lead by Dr Lucy Reynolds. The Mres Art: Moving Image programme is now open for applications for 2015/16 For more information see CSM website or contact Lucy Reynolds directly at [email protected]
 
 

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