Long Live the Underground! Celebrating Six Decades of the Film-Makers’ Cooperative and Millennium Film Workshop

Stan Brakhage’s 1958 silent film Anticipation of the Night is a kinetic study in rhythm and color, with images that evoke the passage from childhood innocence to adult angst. Now considered a milestone of the American avant-garde, it was initially rejected for screening in New York because of its seemingly formless approach. The need for distributors and exhibitors who were open to the burgeoning underground film movement—decidedly non-commercial, ultra-low-budget projects that were radical in style and content and often shot on 16mm and 8mm film—led directly to the creation of the Film-Makers’ Cooperative in 1961 and Millennium Film Workshop in 1966. Both organizations, so crucial to the growth of the underground in the 1960s, are thriving today, and continue to introduce new filmmakers while honoring cinema’s rich history of personal expression.

A disparate group of filmmakers who called themselves the New American Cinema Group, led by Jonas Mekas, Shirley Clarke, Gregory Markoupoulos, and others, formed the Film-Makers’ Cooperative to distribute the work of any artist who chose to deposit their films. Its spirit was captured in a manifesto by Mekas: “We believe that cinema is indivisibly a personal expression…. We don’t want false, polished, slick films—we prefer them rough, unpolished, but alive; we don’t want rosy films—we want them the color of blood.” Five years later, Millennium Film Workshop was formed, led by Ken Jacobs, who chose the name to convey what he called “an atmosphere of possibility,” a future where “people could do their own thing.” Originally based at the St. Mark’s Church, Millennium soon set up shop on the Lower East Side, offering equipment access, work space for post-production, and weekly screenings in its ongoing Personal Cinema series.

Established during a galvanizing cultural moment amid deep social unrest and change, the Film-Makers’ Cooperative and Millennium Film Workshop maintain their missions today against the currents of our own turbulent era, as vital and necessary as ever. This series reflects that continuity by celebrating just some of the thousands of filmmakers whose work they have fostered, distributed, and screened. Selections will be presented in nine thematic programs: Anticipation of the (Opening) Night; Roots of the NY Underground; Make Love, Not War; Seventies Structures; Cinemas of Transgression; Quotidian Pleasures; New York No Story; Diaries, Notes, and Sketches; and The Material is the Message.

Organized by Joe Wakeman, Executive Director, Millennium Film Workshop, Matt McKinzie, Artistic Director, the Film-Makers’ Cooperative, and David Schwartz, President of the Board of Directors, the Film-Makers’ Cooperative, with Ron Magliozzi, Curator, and Carson Parish, Associate Producer, Department of Film, MoMA, and Julia Curl, Marron Research Consortium Fellow, MoMA. Thanks to Steve Macfarlane, Department Assistant, Department of Film, MoMA.

Film at MoMA is made possible by CHANEL.

Additional support is provided by the Annual Film Fund. Leadership support for the Annual Film Fund is provided by The Contemporary Arts Council of The Museum of Modern Art, Agnes Gund through The International Council of The Museum of Modern Art, the Association of Independent Commercial Producers (AICP), and The Young Patrons Council of The Museum of Modern Art.

Funding for film restorations is provided by the Lillian Gish Fund for Preservation.