The Film-Makers' Cooperative (a.k.a. The New American Cinema Group, Inc.) is an artist-run, non-profit organization founded in 1961 in New York City 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's work has been exhibited in museums and at festivals world ...

Andy Warhol Andy Warhol (;''Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary''"Warhol" born Andrew Warhola Jr.; August 6, 1928 – February 22, 1987) was an American visual artist, film director and producer. A leading figure in the pop art movement, Warhol ...

, Shirley Clarke,

Stan Brakhage James Stanley Brakhage ( ; January 14, 1933 – March 9, 2003) was an American experimental filmmaker. He is considered to be one of the most important figures in 20th-century experimental film. Over the course of five decades, Brakhage cr ...

, Jack Smith, Lionel Rogosin, Gregory Markopoulos, Lloyd Michael Williams, and other filmmakers, for the distribution, education, and exhibition of avant-garde films and alternative media.

History

In the fall of 1960,

and Lewis Allen organized several meetings with independent filmmakers in New York City that culminated on September 28, 1960, with the group officially declaring themselves the "New American Cinema Group." On January 7, 1961, at a contentious meeting of the Group,

Amos Vogel Amos Vogel ( Vogelbaum; April 18, 1921 – April 24, 2012) was a New York City cineaste and curator. Biography Vogel was born in Vienna, Austria. He fled Austria with his parents after the Nazi '' Anschluß'' in 1938 and at first studied animal h ...

attempted to stonewall the formation of the distribution center, claiming that his own Cinema 16 organization should be the only distributor of experimental films. However, Vogel was shouted down after it was pointed out that Cinema 16 refused to distribute

's '' Anticipation of the Night'' (1958). On September 30, 1962, Mekas presented the first draft of a manifesto for the New American Cinema Group, which included a call to form a cooperative distribution center. An excerpt from the manifesto reads:

About

The Film-Makers' Cooperative holds a large collection of avant-garde and experimental films, with over 6,000 titles by more than 2,500 filmmakers and media artists. The collection includes work created on 35mm, 16mm, Super 8mm, 8mm, video, and digital formats. The Cooperative rents out the films in its collection to cinématheques, film festivals, schools, universities, museums, and other art institutions in the United States and around the world. Based upon a belief common to the founding members that the "official cinema is running out of breath" and has become "morally corrupt, aesthetically obsolete, thematically superficial, temperamentally boring" (as the original 1962 manifestoHistory
states), the Film-Makers' Cooperative was a key institution in the heyday of American

experimental An experiment is a procedure carried out to support or refute a hypothesis, or determine the efficacy or likelihood of something previously untried. Experiments provide insight into cause-and-effect by demonstrating what outcome occurs whe ...

and

underground film An underground film is a film that is out of the mainstream either in its style, genre or financing. Notable examples include John Waters' ''Pink Flamingos'', David Lynch's ''Eraserhead'', Andy Warhol's ''Blue Movie'', Rosa von Praunheim's ''Tal ...

in the 1960s and 1970s, and has continued to operate on a non-exclusive basis to ensure the existence of an alternative, non-commercial film culture since then. As a result, the Cooperative is open to anyone who wishes to become a member. The Film-Makers' Cooperative has inspired similar initiatives both within the United States (

Canyon Cinema Canyon Cinema is an American nonprofit organization for distributing independent, avant-garde, and artist-made films. After starting in the 1960s as an exhibition program, it grew to include a nationwide newsletter and a distribution cooperative. ...

in San Francisco) and abroad ( The London Film-Makers' Co-operative in England, ABCinema in Denmark, and elsewhere). Besides distributing its members' films, the Film-Makers' Cooperative is continuously involved in film preservation and home media release projects, and in arranging screenings and events in and around New York City. In 2020, the Cooperative expanded its distribution to online

video on demand Video on demand (VOD) is a media distribution system that allows users to access videos, television shows and films Digital distribution, digitally on request. These multimedia are accessed without a traditional video playback device and a typica ...

programs, including panels with filmmakers and media artists.

Directors and Board Members

Founding Director:

Executive Director: Tom Day
Members of the Board: *Emily Singer, President *Julia Curl, Vice President *Gregg Biermann *

Eduardo Darino Eduardo Darino is a Uruguayan film producer, director, animator, and cartoonist. Born in Montevideo, Uruguay, he studied law at the Universidad de la Republica and came to New York in 1973 where he still resides. During his career he has drawn ...

*KJ Rothweiler *David Schwartz *Cody Simons Advisory Board: *Kat Bauer *cherry brice jr. *Peter Cramer * Jeffrey Deitch *

Bradley Eros Bradley Eros (born in 1952 in Fairfield, Illinois) is an experimental film director, actor, curator, poet, and performance artist who also makes Musique concrète sound collages, music videos, photographs, live projection performances, works on ...

Philip Glass Philip Glass (born January 31, 1937) is an American composer and pianist. He is widely regarded as one of the most influential composers of the late 20th century. Glass's work has been associated with minimal music, minimalism, being built up fr ...

*Josh Guilford *

Ed Halter Ed Halter is a film programmer, writer, and founder of Light Industry, a microcinema in Brooklyn, New York. He currently teaches at Bard College, where he is Critic in Residence. Criticism His writing has been featured in '' Artforum'', '' Th ...

*James Hansen *Jim Hubbard * Ken and Flo Jacobs *Melissa Lyde *Sebastian Mekas * Bill Morrison *Devon Narine-Singh * Lynne Sachs *Joel Schlemowitz *Jack Waters *Robert Withers

Notable artists

Notable artists and filmmakers in the collection of the Film-Makers' Cooperative: * Peggy Ahwesh * Sara Kathryn Arledge * Scott Bartlett * Craig Baldwin * Zoe Beloff * Alan Berliner * Les Blank *

* Rudy Burckhardt * Shirley Clarke * Doris Totten Chase * Abigail Child *

Joseph Cornell Joseph Cornell (December 24, 1903 – December 29, 1972) was an American visual artist and filmmaker, one of the pioneers and most celebrated exponents of assemblage. Influenced by the Surrealists, he was also an avant-garde experimental filmma ...

* Storm De Hirsch *

Donna Deitch Donna Deitch (born June 8, 1945, San Francisco, California) is an American film and television director, producer, screenwriter, and actor best known for her 1985 film '' Desert Hearts''. The movie was the first feature film to "de-sensational ...

* Maya Deren *

Ed Emshwiller Edmund Alexander Emshwiller (February 16, 1925 – July 27, 1990) was an American people, American visual artist notable for his science fiction illustrations and his pioneering experimental films. He usually signed his illustrations as Emsh but ...

* Charles Henri Ford * Hollis Frampton * Su Friedrich * Ernie Gehr *

Jean Genet Jean Genet (; ; – ) was a French novelist, playwright, poet, essayist, and political activist. In his early life he was a vagabond and petty criminal, but he later became a writer and playwright. His major works include the novels '' The Th ...

Bette Gordon Bette Gordon (born June 22, 1950) is an Americans, American filmmaker and professor at Columbia University School of the Arts. She is best known for her films ''Variety (1983 film), Variety'' (1983) and ''Handsome Harry'' (2009), both of which rec ...

* Larry Gottheim *

Curtis Harrington Gene Curtis Harrington (September 17, 1926 – May 6, 2007) was an American film and television director whose work included experimental films and horror films. He is considered one of the forerunners of New Queer Cinema. Life and career ...

* Emily Hubley *

Faith Hubley Faith Hubley (née Chestman; September 16, 1924 – December 7, 2001) was an American animator, known for her experimental work both in collaboration with her husband John Hubley, and on her own following her husband's death. Biography Bor ...

* Takahiko Iimura *

Ken Jacobs Ken Jacobs (born May 25, 1933 in Brooklyn, New York) is an American experimental filmmaker. His style often involves the use of found footage which he edits and manipulates. He has also directed films using his own footage. Ken Jacobs directed ...

* Marjorie Keller * Standish Lawder * Lana Lin * Willard Maas * Babette Mangolte * Taylor Mead *

* Marie Menken * Bill Morrison * Edward Owens * Suzan Pitt * Jennifer Reeves * Ron Rice * José Rodríguez-Soltero * Barbara Rosenthal * Lynne Sachs * Marja Samsom * Carolee Schneemann * Paul Sharits *

Harry Everett Smith Harry Everett Smith (May 29, 1923 – November 27, 1991) was an American polymath, who was credited variously as an artist, experimental filmmaker, bohemian, mystic, record collector, hoarder, student of anthropology and a Neo-Gnostic ...

* Jack Smith *

Michael Snow Michael James Aleck Snow (December 10, 1928 – January 5, 2023) was a Canadian artist who worked in a range of media including film, installation, sculpture, photography, and music. His best-known films are ''Wavelength'' (1967) and '' La Rég ...

* Warren Sonbert * Stan VanDerBeek *

Jud Yalkut Jud Yalkut (;1938–2013) was an experimental film and video maker and intermedia artist. Personal life Jud Yalkut was born in New York City in 1938. In 1973, he moved to Dayton, Ohio, where he lived until his death at the age of 75 in Cincinnati ...

* Nick Zedd

References

External links

The New American Cinema Group / The Film-Makers’ Coop
(official site) * {{DEFAULTSORT:Film-Makers Cooperative, The Experimental film festivals Film organizations in the United States Filmmaker cooperatives Artist cooperatives in the United States Jonas Mekas Cooperatives based in New York (state)