Boom
and Bust of the 'Loony Left': The Greater London Council and
Independent Film and Video in the Eighties
Presented at the Screen Studies conference, University of Glasgow, 3 July 2004
In the Sun newspaper's account, the GLC of 'Red Ken'
Livingstone shelled London's 'loony left' with public funds
from 1981 until the Conservative government abolished it (and
six other Metropolitan Councils) in 1986. During this brief
period, the GLC funded numerous social inclusion initiatives,
including London's politicised film and video sector (ie.
Cinema of Women, London Filmmakers' Co-op). Further, the network
of GLC-supported non-arts organisations provided a sympathetic
context (and market) for independent film and video activities.
After the
Abolition, the ex-GLC funds migrated upward, to the Arts Council
and BFI, and downward to the boroughs. However, through the
late eighties the network of arts and other organisations
suffered increasing defunding from these organisations. In
1990 the Independent Film, Video and Photographers' Association,
Circles and Cinema of Women were defunded by the BFI, providing
one of the best known 'crunch' points of the British independent
film and video sector. In spite of their stewardship of Abolition
money, the freshly restructured BFI claimed to lack the means
to support these ex-GLC clients. Though the late eighties
contained many adverse factors, it is significant that the
transition from the boom of activity in the eighties to the
bust of the nineties is so closely related to the fate of
the Abolition money.
This paper
will excavate the impact of the Livingstone GLC's funding
policies on independent film and video activity, and the fallout
resulting from the piecemeal disappearance of the Abolition
money.
Dr Peter
Thomas
Post Doctoral Research Fellow on the AHRB funded project 'Independent
Film and Video Distribution in the UK, 1966-2000', University
of Luton
peter.thomas@luton.ac.uk
(peter.thomas-1@sunderland.ac.uk)
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