Some Friends

Roger Hammond’s silent portraits of film artists from the early 1970s were shot in and around David Larcher’s studio. Some Friends begins with a Polaroid photograph of fellow Co-op filmmaker Mike Dunford held before the camera by the filmmaker as he pans the camera upwards with his other hand. The photograph is held roughly in the centre of the frame, and the general situation in which it is filmed is just seen at the sides of the photograph as the camera pans. The same action is repeated with several photographs, against different backdrops (the river banks, a lawn, a domestic interior).

Founded in 1966, the London Film-Makers’ Co-operative started life at Better Books, a counter-culture bookshop on Charing Cross Road, where a group led by poet Bob Cobbing and filmmakers Stephen Dwoskin and Jeff Keen met to screen films. Initially inspired by the activities of the New American Cinema Group in New York, the London Co-op grew into a pioneering organisation that incorporated a film workshop, cinema space and distribution office. During its four-decade history, the Co-op played a crucial role in establishing film as an art form in the UK and participated in a vibrant international film scene. This BFI Player collection brings together new scans of films distributed by and/or produced at the London Co-op.