Luxonline Histories:1970-1979

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The 1970s saw the most coherent period of experimental filmmaking yet, as festivals such as The International Festival of Independent Avant-garde film showed the extent to which artists across Europe and North America were working with film and saw themselves as an art form separate from the mainstream cinema market. The latter part of the 1970s saw the emergence of a new moving image medium, video.

Written and researched by Lucy Reynolds, Luxonline Content Manager and Russell Hedges, writer and PHD student at the University of East London.

Poster for International Underground Film Festival, NFT 1970

KEY EVENTS: 1970-1979

	1970		First International Underground Film Festival, National Film Theatre

	1971		Experimental Cinema, a fifty-year evoloution by David Curtis is published by Studio Vista.

	1971		Ten TV Interruptions by David Hall broadcast unannounced on Scottish TV.

	1972		Art and Artists magazine, avant-garde film issue

	1972		A Survey of the Avant-Garde in Britain; Gallery House, London

	1973		Reel Time performed by Annabel Nicolson at the London Film-makers' Co-operative.

	1973		Filmaktion Events at the Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool

	1973		The International Festival of Independent Avant-Garde Film at the National Film Theatre.

	1974		Founding of the Independent Film-Makers' Association

	1974		Fifth Experimental International Film Festival, Knokke-Heist, Belgium includes video works for the first time.

	1974		Fantasy Factory set up in London as an independent video editing resource for community groups, community arts projects and artists.

	1975		Studio International magazine, artists' film issue

	1975		2B Butlers Wharf is set up to present video, film and performance work on a regular basis until its closure in 1979.

	1975		Avant-garde British Landscape Films at the Tate Gallery.

	1975		The Video Show, Serpentine Gallery, London.

	1976		Structural Film Anthology, Peter Gidal (ed.), BFI

	1976		London Video Arts (LVA) is founded for the promotion, distribution and exhibition of video art.

	1976		Artists' Video - An Alternative Use of The Medium, The Galleries, Washington Tyne and Wear.

	1976		Ayton Basement – opens in Newcastle Upon Tyne, December, 1976.

	1976		BBC TV Arena video arts special. First British TV programme opens, unannounced, with This is a Television Receiver by David Hall.

	1976		The Video Show, Tate Gallery, London. First Tate Gallery exhibition of video installations.

	1976		Studio International magazine, special video issue

	1977		Perspectives on British Avant-Garde Film, Hayward Gallery

	1977		Abstract Film and Beyond, Malcolm Le Grice

	1977		Video Manifestatie, Bonnefantenmuseum, Maastricht. International exhibition and symposium includes work by British artists.

	1977		British Film and Video at the Cavallino Gallery, Venice and Bon a Tirer Gallery, Milan, Italy.

	1977		Documenta 6, Kassel, Germany. British Video represented by David Hall.

	1977		Dixieme Biennale de Paris. British video installations by Tamra Krikorian, Stuart Marshall and Steve Partridge.

	1978		Light Reading by Lis Rhodes

	1978		Video Art 78, Herbert Art Gallery and Museum, Coventry.

	1978		LVAs first screening, Air Gallery, London, also launches its first distribution catalogue.

1978		A Perspective on English Avant-Garde Film touring show

1979		Circles formed to distribute women artists' film and video.

1979		Video 79: The First Decade, Museum of Folklore, Rome. I

1979		Videotapes by British Artists, The Kitchen, New York, selected by Steve Partridge.

1979		British video art in Canada, selected tapes toured by David Hall

1979		Film as Film exhibition, Hayward Gallery