The London Film-makers' Co-op, or LFMC, was a British film-making workshop founded in 1966. It ceased to exist in 1999 when it merged with

London Video Arts London Video Arts (LVA) was founded for the promotion, distribution and exhibition of video art. Art form By 1976 video art had emerged as a viable time-based art form, which was beginning to establish its own aesthetic identity and theoretical dis ...

to form

LUX The lux (symbol: lx) is the unit of illuminance, or luminous flux per unit area, in the International System of Units (SI). It is equal to one lumen per square metre. In photometry, this is used as a measure of the intensity, as perceived by ...

. It grew out of film screenings at the

Better Books ''Better Books'' was an independent bookstore. It was founded by Tony Godwin and was located at 94 Charing Cross Road, London. The shop was a significant location in the 1960s counterculture movement in London. History It was founded by British p ...

bookstore, part of the 1960s

counter-culture A counterculture is a culture whose values and norms of behavior differ substantially from those of mainstream society, sometimes diametrically opposed to mainstream cultural mores.Eric Donald Hirsch. ''The Dictionary of Cultural Literacy''. Hou ...

in London, before moving to the original

Arts Lab The Arts Lab was an alternative arts centre, founded in 1967 by Jim Haynes at 182 Drury Lane, London. Although only active for two years, it was influential in inspiring many similar centres in the UK, continental Europe and Australia, includ ...

on Drury Lane, then sharing offices with John 'Hoppy' Hopkins'

BIT The bit is the most basic unit of information in computing and digital communications. The name is a portmanteau of binary digit. The bit represents a logical state with one of two possible values. These values are most commonly represente ...

information service and then, with the breakaway group that formed the New Arts Lab, to the Camden-based

Institute for Research in Art and Technology The Institute for Research in Art and Technology (IRAT, also known as New Arts Lab; Robert Street Arts Lab) was founded in London in 1969 by a group of artists and activists including painter/author Pamela Zoline, video Pioneer John Hopkins, pain ...

. With the end of IRAT's lease in 1971 the Co-op found a base in a long-term squat in a former dairy at 13a Prince of Wales Crescent in Kentish Town. For most of its life the LFMC was based in Gloucester Avenue in Camden in a run down building which for a number of years also housed the London Musicians Collective. In 1997 the LFMC moved together with London Video Arts to the new Lux Centre,

Hoxton Square Hoxton Square is a public garden square in the Hoxton area of Shoreditch in the London Borough of Hackney. Laid out in 1683, it is thought to be one of the oldest in London. Since the 1990s it has been at the heart of the Hoxton national (digit ...

. Founded by, amongst others,

Stephen Dwoskin Stephen Dwoskin (15 January 1939 – 28 June 2012) was a major avant-garde filmmaker whose work was closely connected to the ' gaze theory' associated with Laura Mulvey; a significant disabled filmmaker – though he rejected being framed as su ...

and

Bob Cobbing Bob Cobbing (30 July 1920 – 29 September 2002) was a British sound, visual, concrete and performance poet who was a central figure in the British Poetry Revival. Early life Cobbing was born in Enfield and grew up within the Plymouth Breth ...

, inspired by

Jonas Mekas Jonas Mekas (; December 24, 1922 – January 23, 2019) was a Lithuanian-American filmmaker, poet, and artist who has been called "the godfather of American avant-garde cinema". Mekas' work has been exhibited in museums and at festivals worldwi ...

The Film-Makers' Cooperative The Film-Makers' Cooperative a.k.a. legal name The New American Cinema Group, Inc. is an artist-run, non-profit organization incorporated in July 1961 in New York City by Jonas Mekas, Shirley Clarke, Stan Brakhage, Lionel Rogosin, Gregory Markopo ...

in New York. One difference between the New York Co-op and the LFMC was that the LFMC was organized as an egalitarian, worksharing cooperative, which assisted production as well as distribution. It initially had close links with American

experimental cinema Experimental film or avant-garde cinema is a mode of filmmaking that rigorously re-evaluates cinematic conventions and explores non-narrative forms or alternatives to traditional narratives or methods of working. Many experimental films, parti ...

. Carla Liss ran the co-op's distribution archive. Filmmakers associated with the group include

Malcolm Le Grice Malcolm Le Grice (born May 1940, in Plymouth, United Kingdom) is a British artist known for his avant-garde film work. Biography The British Film Institute claims that he "is probably the most influential modernist filmmaker in British cinema". ...

, Peter Gidal,

Michael "Atters" Attree Michael "Atters" Attree (born 22 April 1965 in Colchester Military Hospital)'' The Argus'' Weekend (cover feature): A Bounder and a Cad. 25–26 August 2007. is a British humourist and performer. Early life Attree was born to British colonial ...

Carolee Schneemann Carolee Schneemann (October 12, 1939 – March 6, 2019) was an American visual experimental artist, known for her multi-media works on the body, narrative, sexuality and gender. She received a B.A. in poetry and philosophy from Bard College and ...

, Annabel Nicolson,

Lis Rhodes Lis Rhodes (born 1942) is a British artist and feminist filmmaker, known for her density, concentration, and poeticism in her visual works. She has been active in the UK since the early 1970s. Early life and education Rhodes was brought up in W ...

, Gill Eatherley, Roger Hammond, Mike Dunford,

Sandra Lahire Sandra Lahire (November 19, 1950 - July 27, 2001) was a central figure in the experimental feminist filmmaking that emerged in the UK in the 1970s and 1980s. Life and career Lahire studied Philosophy at the University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne (B ...

Vera Neubauer Vera Neubauer is a Czech born British experimental filmmaker, animator, feminist activist and educator. She is known for her jarring, provocative and anti establishment approach. Her life's work spans genres, from cinematic short film to televisi ...

, David Crosswaite,

Philip Goring Philip, also Phillip, is a male given name, derived from the Greek (''Philippos'', lit. "horse-loving" or "fond of horses"), from a compound of (''philos'', "dear", "loved", "loving") and (''hippos'', "horse"). Prominent Philips who populariz ...

, Sanchieboots, Fred Drummond, ''et al.'' and William Raban, who managed the LFMC workshop from 1972 - 76.

Sally Potter Charlotte Sally Potter (born 19 September 1949) is an English film director and screenwriter. She is known for directing ''Orlando'' (1992), which won the audience prize for Best Film at the Venice Film Festival. Early life Potter was born an ...

made several short films at the LFMC in the early 1970s. Work produced by members of the LFMC in the late 1960s and early 1970s has been labelled Structural/Materialist Film.A Century of Artists' Film in Britain: Programme 4: Structural Film, link updated 4 August 2014.
/ref>

References

External links

LFMC starts at Better Books and Notting Hill Festival - IT 1966
* ttps://www.scribd.com/doc/17741226/Shoot-Shoot-Shoot-Broadsheet-Newspaper-2002 Shoot Shoot Shoot - The First Decade of LFMC 1966-76
Film & Video Distribution Database
database of material and information about the organisations distributing experimental film and video art in the UK, including London Film-makers' Co-op, London Video Access/Electronic Arts, Circles/Cinenova, Film and Video Umbrella, and Lux. {{UK underground Experimental film Film organisations in the United Kingdom Filmmaker cooperatives Co-operatives in England