Frieze Video and LUX present Soft Floor, Hard Film: 50 Years of the London Film-Makers’ Co-op.

Formed on October 13th 1968, the London Film-Makers’ Co-operative (LFMC) grew out of a series of screenings in the basement of counter-culture book store, Better Books, on Charing Cross road to become a pioneering organisation incorporating a film workshop, cinema space and distribution office. Radical in its early ideals, the Co-op played a crucial role in establishing moving image as an art form in the UK and internationally.

Cornerhouse Artist Film presents the special compilation of artist film to celebrate no.w.here’s 10th birthday. A unique space for artist film and moving image based in East London, no.w.here has bespoke film equipment not available anywhere else in the UK and is a vital production space for artists to innovate and experiment. 

This screening includes work by artists Bradley Eros & Tim Geraghty, James Holcombe, Ben Gwilliam, Hang Jun Lee, Charlotte Prodger, James Richards and Vicky Smith. Set up Karen Mirza and Brad Butler in 2004, no.w.here also presents a year round programme of events, screenings, workshops, schools education, residencies, studios and publications. This project has been developed with the support of Film Hub North West Central, part of the BFI's Film Audience Network.

Purge and the ICA present the films of Frans Zwartjes in their original 16mm format. Acclaimed as 'the great cinema magician' in his native Holland, and widely considered 'Holland’s preeminent experimental filmmaker', Zwartjes is also a painter, craftsman and musician: a polymath who defies categorisation, following in and ultimately expanding a tradition of great Dutch masters.

Zwartjes creates 'highly stylised, poetically claustrophobic films which achieve a unique level of sensual intimacy in their renditions of sexual and domestic tension, and voyeurism.'

Championed by Susan Sontag ('the most important experimental filmmaker of his time') and Amos Vogel (distributor of Zwartjes’ films in the US), and recently subject to a large retrospective at the Gemeentemuseum Den Haag, this ICA screening is the first time that these films have ever been shown in the UK in their original format.

Aesthetic Queeries
Part of the Open City Docs Fest
Saturday June 23, 17h
Institute of Contemporary Arts
The Mall, London SW1Y 5AH