Millennium Film Workshop is a rare space in New York City that champions self-expression and experimentation in filmmaking. For over 60 years, Millennium has cultivated a thriving community of artists and creators, giving anyone interested in filmmaking access to resources such as camera equipment, workshop programs, a gallery, and the Millennium Film Journal. After all these years, the organization is far from aging. To celebrate the legacy of experimental filmmaking in New York City, the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is hosting screenings in October, honoring Millennium Film Workshop and the Film-Makers’ Cooperative.Â
In the 1960s, after the 35mm camera became popular, more people began using cameras to tell their stories. Experimental film first found its community during this period, as parameters expanded beyond the polished medium of high-budget films. Breaks in narrative and structure-based rules gave way to a more tactile viewing experience: sensorial through color, lighting, focus on the hyper-mundane, or surreal in nature.Â
Filmmakers already working in this experimental format collectivized when, in 1961, Cinema 16, the only theater in NYC showing experimental film, rejected Stan Brakhage’s Anticipation of the Night. In response, Jonas Mekas, Shirley Clarke, Ken and Flo Jacobs, and others formed the New American Cinema Group. That same year, the Film-Makers’ Cooperative was formed to distribute and archive this growing body of work.Â
(left) Millennium Film Workshop’s Steenbeck editor saying “Hello”; (right) “VJOLTRON,” an ongoing series hosted by Millennium Film Workshop
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