Berwick Street Film Collective – Nightcleaners & ’36 to ’77

Nightcleaners (1975) by the Berwick Street Film Collective has long been recognised as a landmark of British experimental film and political cinema. Together with its companion film ’36 to ’77 (1978), it pioneered a film form as radical as the Collective’s politics. The films chronicle one of the key campaigns of the women’s movement in the 1970s. The campaign to unionise women night cleaners in London anticipates contemporary issues regarding precarious labour. To celebrate the first digital release of the films, a special box set has been produced containing the two films on discs, reproductions of historical material, including news sheets of the women’s movement – one designed by Mary Kelly, a member of the Film Collective, an interview with whom is also included as well as rare illustrations and contributions from the filmmakers and new essays contextualising the films. With contributions by Benjamin Cook, Kodwo Eshun, Mary Kelly, Marc Karlin, Dan Kidner, Sheila Rowbotham, Alex Sainsbury, Sukhdev Sandhu, James Scott and Humphry Trevelyan. The publication is a box containing two books and two discs (Blu-ray).* Book 1 includes commissioned essays by Kodwo Eshun, Dan Kidner, Sheila Rowbotham, Sukhdev Sandhu, and Humphry Trevelyan, plus a new interview with Mary Kelly, excerpts of interviews with Marc Karlin and from James Scott's Nightcleaners production diary (1972). Book 2 contains facsimiles, including an issue of Shrew (1971), the publication of the Women’s Liberation Workshop (this issue designed by Mary Kelly and dedicated to the cleaners’ struggle); excerpts from Red Rag (1973) and Spare Rib (1975); newsletters of the Cleaners Actions Group (1971); and a 1977 transcript of Nightcleaners. Edited by Dan Kidner and Alex Sainsbury Designed by John Morgan studio THIS EXCLUSIVE BLU-RAY EDITION IS ONLY AVAILABLE DIRECTLY FROM LUX DVD edition is available from Koenig Books Published by LUX, Raven Row & Koenig Books ISBN 9783960983811 Format 2 vols + Blu-rays (boxed) Pages 212 Illustrations 11 colour, 25 b&w Dimensions 304mm x 216mm