The London Community Video Archive’s film programme explores the legacy of radical community video and grassroots arts projects in 1970s East London. The programme is divided into 3 focus elements: Basement Project, E1 Festival and THAP.
The Basement Project combined a community arts workshop, an intermediate education centre and a general meeting place. Local community members, mainly young people, were taught how to use video equipment to produce community videos about their daily lives and surroundings.
The E1 Festival was a community-organised festival that took place throughout the 1970s on vacant land in Stepney, East London. Originally set up in protest, to raise money for the Junior Football League, it was a weekend long event of music, performing arts, stalls, and activities for people of all ages.
The Tower Hamlets Arts Project (THAP) emerged from a campaign for investment in locally-led arts rather than externally commissioned public art. Founded in 1976, it championed community participation and celebrated its achievements with a month-long ‘Big Show’ at the Whitechapel Art Gallery, 50 years ago in 1976.