Refle-x-périmental #18
Through the Looking Glass: The London Film-Makers’ Co-op ‘66-75
In 2025, Refle-x-périmental continues to pay tribute to the work of experimental film cooperatives founded from the 1960s onward, in a spirit of independence, rebellion, and (re)invention of the avant-garde and cinematic thinking. Among these, the London Film-Makers’ Co-operative (LFMC), founded in 1966, stands out as one of the most influential centers of British experimental cinema.
Born out of a shared desire for artistic autonomy and formal experimentation, the London-based collective was part of the underground movement while asserting a strong political and critical dimension, at the crossroads of cinema, conceptual art, and performative practices. Initially a simple screening group dedicated to American avant-garde cinema, the cooperative quickly evolved into a self-managed hub for production, distribution, and exhibition, led by key figures such as Malcolm Le Grice and Annabel Nicolson. Moving between alternative galleries, independent cinemas, and artisanal workshops, their works—often marked by filmic materialism, structuralism, or self-reflexivity—challenged narrative conventions, temporal linearity, and viewer passivity. This program highlights the contributions of filmmakers particularly active during the LFMC’s first decade, helping to redefine the contours of avant-garde cinema in Great Britain, tracing a unique path between collective commitment, formal research and resistance to the logics of the market.
► Screening :
To The Dairy
Annabel Nicolson
1975, 16mm (digital), color, silent, 3’
"A last look at the London Filmmakers’ Co-op when it was housed in an old Victorian dairy." – LUX.
The Hut
John Smith
1973, 16mm (digital), color, sound, 5’
"An experiment with visual rhythms which animates still photographs of a decaying building." – LUX.
Play
Sally Potter
1970, 16mm (digital), double screen, color and b&w, sound, 10’
“Double screen film of six children playing on the street below (three sets of twins). Filmed through two adjacent cameras, one with colour film and one with black and white. When presented, two projectors are used so that the images appear side by side allowing the children to move through the frame lines.”
– Sally Potter website.
Shepherd’s Bush
Mike Leggett
1971, 16mm, b&w, sound, 15’
"Shepherd’s Bush was a revelation. It was both true film notion and demonstrated an ingenious association with the film-process. It is the procedure and conclusion of a piece of film logic using a brilliantly simple device; the manipulation of the light source in the Film Co-op printer such that a series of transformations are effected on a loop of film material."
– Roger Hammond, LUX.
Berlin Horse
Malcolm Le Grice
1971, 16mm, b&w, sound, 15’
"This film is largely filmed with an exploration of the film medium in certain aspects. It is also concerned with making certain conceptions about time in a more illusory way than I have been inclined to explore in many other of my films. It attempts to deal with some of the paradoxes of the relationships of the ‘real’ time which exists when the film was being shot, with the ‘real’ time which exists when the film is being screened, and how this can be modulated by technical manipulation of the images and sequences."
– Malcolm Le Grice, LUX.
One Million Unemployed In Winter
Mike Dunford
1971, 8mm (digital), color, sound, 7’
"A film on unemployment which invites the spectator to resist capitalism and the consumption society, made by Mike Dunford, who was unemployed at the time, with the intention of providing a catalyst for discussion at Claimants Union meetings. One long shot of people standing outside the Labour Exchange is interrupted every four seconds with images of prosperity: wealth-consumer goods, Rolls Royces driving down streets. On the soundtrack, an unemployed man speaks about his situation and the difficulties he faces." – BFI.
Soul in a White Room
Simon Hartog
1968, 16mm (digital), color, sound, 3’30
"Soul in a White Room was filmed by Simon Hartog around autumn 1968. Music on the soundtrack is Cousin Jane by the Troggs. The man is Omar Diop-Blondin, the woman I don’t recall her name. Omar was a student active in 1968 during ‘les événements de Mai et de Juin’ at the Faculté de Nanterre, Université de Paris. Around this time, Godard was in London shooting Sympathy For The Devil / One Plus One with the Stones and Omar was here for that too, appearing with Frankie Y (Frankie Dymon) and the other black panthers in London… Maybe Michael X too. After returning to Senegal, Omar was imprisoned and killed in custody in ’71 or ’72. I believe his fate is well known to the Senegalese people."
– Jonathan Langran, LUX.
Dresden Dynamo
Lis Rhodes
1971, 16mm, color, sound, 5’
"It was perhaps the question of sound – the uncertainty of any synchronicity between what was seen and what was said that began an investigation into the relationship of sound to image. Dresden Dynamo is a film that I made without a camera – in which the image is the soundtrack – the sound track the image. A film document.
– Lis Rhodes, LUX.
Hand Grenade
Gill Eatherley
1972, 16mm (digital), triple screen, color, sound, 8’
"This is truly a ‘popcorn’ film. It started out as an experiment with the movements in space of a flashlight and their recording by the camera. Initially 30m black and white. Each photogram captures a pattern created by the torch in space. We edited, then color was added to the positive and negative elements (sometimes overprinted) with the London Co-op's optical printer."
– Gill Eatherley.
In the presence of the director.
Thanks to: LUX, Light Cone, Adventure Pictures, Gill Eatherley, Mike Dunford, John Smith.
✸
Facebook event: https://fb.me/e/7MlztCHBu
