Issue Details: First known date: 2015... 2015 A Work in Progress : The Rise and Fall of Australian Filmmakers Co-operatives, 1966–86
The material on this page is available to AustLit subscribers. If you are a subscriber or are from a subscribing organisation, please log in to gain full access. To explore options for subscribing to this unique teaching, research, and publishing resource for Australian culture and storytelling, please contact us or find out more.

AbstractHistoryArchive Description

'Film co-ops were born out of necessity – both economic and political. During the 1960s and 1970s, avant-garde and experimental cinema, “expanded cinema” and varying strands of independent filmmaking sought to grow audiences for work unwelcome in public broadcasting and commercial distribution. Co-operatives were established across Europe, the US, Canada, Japan, Australia and elsewhere. Mostly they were distribution and exhibition operations rather than production collectives, although these kinds of experiments, where they did occur, were often aligned with co-ops. London’s Cinema-Action Collective established in 1968, for example, was an activist media group with close ties to the London Filmmaker’s Co-op. Also established in 1968, the Austrian Filmmakers’ Co-op in Vienna (with some hiatus in the 1970s) continues today, as does Canyon Films in San Francisco. Co-operative structures matched the ethos of their period, insofar as they proposed alternatives to private enterprise by creating institutions envisaged with a commitment to “authenticity”, creativity and co-operation – in contrast with the dominant, “straight” culture’s repressive authoritarianism, alienation and avarice. Needless to say, actuality was a little more complex and compromised than such a dichotomy might suggest, as Australia’s examples illustrate.' (Author's introduction)

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon Senses of Cinema no. 77 December 2015 9226532 2015 periodical issue 2015
Last amended 21 Jan 2016 12:39:14
http://sensesofcinema.com/2015/australian-film-history/australian-filmmakers-co-operatives/ A Work in Progress : The Rise and Fall of Australian Filmmakers Co-operatives, 1966–86small AustLit logo Senses of Cinema
X