Other Cinemas : Politics, Culture and Experimental Film in the 1970s

The 1970s was an enormously creative period for experimental film. Its innovations and debates have had far-reaching and long-lasting influence, with a resurgence of interest in the decade revealed by new gallery events, film screenings and social networks that recognise its achievements. Professor Laura Mulvey, and writer/director Sue Clayton, bring together journalists and scholars at the cutting edge of research into 1970s radical cinema for this collection. Chapters are at once historically grounded yet fused with the current analysis of today's generation of cine-philes, to rediscover a unique moment for extraordinary film production. Other Cinemas establishes the factors that helped to shape alternative film: world cinema and internationalism, the politics of cultural policy and arts funding, new accessible technologies, avant-garde theories, and the development of a dynamic and interactive relationship between film and its audiences. Exploring and celebrating the work of The Other Cinema, the London Film-makers’ Co-op and other cornerstones of today’s film culture, as well as the impact of creatives such as William Raban and Stephen Dwoskin - and Mulvey and Clayton themselves - this important book takes account of a wave of socially aware film practice without which today’s activist, queer, minority and feminist voices would have struggled to gather such volume. Cover Half-title Endorsement Title page Copyright information Table of contents List of illustrations Introduction Memories Of 1970s Independent Cinema Acknowledgements Notes Part One Critical contexts for 1970s experimental filmmaking 1 Semiotics and 1970s British Film Culture Acknowledgements Notes 2 Listening to Women Audition Recitation Remediation Repetition Interpretation Notes 3 Political Contexts of 1970s Independent Filmmaking Then and now: the Lucas Aerospace Plan and neo-liberal amnesia Diverse practices of political engagement in the 1970s film collectives Wider influences and creative strategies Notes 4 Platforms of History: Brecht and the Public Uses of Radical History in 1970s Independent Cinema Notes Part Two Infrastructures, technologies and 1970s experimental filmmaking 5 Audiences: Not an Optional Extra Creating opportunities to see and engage with the films Developing initiatives to build audiences Lessons to be learnt Acknowledgements Notes 6 Engaging Material Specificities: Aesthetics and Politics in the 1970s Notes 7 The Technologies and Practices of 1970s Community Video in the UK Notes 8 ‘Whose History?’ Feminist Advocacy and Experimental Film and Video Acknowledgements Notes Part Three Practices, aesthetics and 1970s experimental filmmaking (the 200 avant-gardes) 9 A Whole New Attitude: The London Film-Makers’ Co-op in the Decade of Structural/Materialism Notes 10 The ‘Salvage’ of Working-Class History and Experience Between two critiques: notions of ‘documentary’ and ‘salvage’ History and perspective in Amber’s Tyneside Documentaries Conclusion Notes 11 Television Interventions: Experiments in Broadcasting by Artists in Britain in the 1970s and 1980s Television and video art Kevin Atherton and David Hall: television interventions The demise of analogue television and the contemporary televisual turn Notes 12 Britain’s Black Filmmaking Workshops and Collective Practice Introduction Go back, to get here Conclusion Notes Part Four Case studies 13 Views of River Yar: Reconsidering Raban and Welsby’s Landmark Landscape Film Notes 14 Between Seeing and Knowing: Stephen Dwoskin’s Behindert and the Camera’s Caress Notes 15 Rapunzel, Let Down Your Hair Notes 16 ‘On Her Devolves the Labour’: The Cinematic Time Travel of The Song of the Shirt Notes Part Five Snapshots from the 1970s 17 Memories of The Other Cinema 18 Organising for Innovation in Film and Television: The Independent Film-Makers’ Association in the Long 1970s Introduction Commentary A short chronology of the IFA in the long 1970s Afterword Notes 19 The International Forum on Avant-Garde Film at the Edinburgh Film Festival, 1976: Interview with Lynda Myles Notes 20 The Workshop Declaration: Independents and Organised Labour Notes 21 Campaigning for Innovation and Experiment on Channel 4 Notes Notes on Contributors Chronological List of Recent Events Select Bibliography Index "Its innovations and debates have had far-reaching and long-lasting influence, with a resurgence of interest in the decade revealed by new gallery events, film screenings and social networks that recognise its achievements. Professor Laura Mulvey, and writer and director Sue Clayton, bring together journalists and scholars at the cutting edge of research into 1970s radical cinema for this collection. Chapters are at once historically grounded yet fused with the current analysis of today's generation of cine-philes, to rediscover a unique moment for extraordinary film production. Other Cinemas establishes the factors that helped to shape alternative film: world cinema and internationalism, the politics of cultural policy and arts funding, new accessible technologies, avant-garde theories, and the development of a dynamic and interactive relationship between film and its audiences. Exploring and celebrating the work of The Other Cinema, the London Film-makers' Co-op and other cornerstones of today's film culture, as well as the impact of creatives such as Stephen Dwoskin, Derek Jarman, and Sally Potter - and Mulvey and Clayton themselves - this important book takes account of a wave of socially aware film practice without which today's activist, queer, minority and feminist voices would have struggled to gather such volume."--Résumé de l'éditeur "Its innovations and debates have had far-reaching and long-lasting influence, with a resurgence of interest in the decade revealed by new gallery events, film screenings and social networks that recognise its achievements. Professor Laura Mulvey, and writer and director Sue Clayton, bring together journalists and scholars at the cutting edge of research into 1970s radical cinema for this collection. Chapters are at once historically grounded yet fused with the current analysis of today's generation of cine-philes, to rediscover a unique moment for extraordinary film production. Other Cinemas establishes the factors that helped to shape '70s alternative film: world cinema and internationalism, the politics of cultural policy and arts funding, new accessible technologies, avant-garde theories, and the development of a dynamic and interactive relationship between film and its audiences. Exploring and celebrating the work of The Other Cinema, the London Film-makers' Co-op and other cornerstones of today's film culture, as well as the impact of creatives such as William Raban and Stephen Dwoskin - and the editors of this collection themselves - this important book takes account of a wave of socially aware film practice without which today's activist, queer, minority and feminist voices would have struggled to gather such volume."