Fuel the Future of Experimental Film

The Film-Makers’ Cooperative is the first artist-run non-profit organization devoted to the collection and dissemination of experimental film and media art. Founded in New York City in 1961 by a group of twenty-two pathbreaking experimental filmmakers and artists, the FMC supports, distributes, preserves, and exhibits artists and artworks from our collection spanning the history of film and media art. Numbering nearly 6,000 works (by 2,500 artists), the FMC’s collection is one of the largest repositories of film and media art in the world, and we offer a diverse exhibition and workshop program curated by an array of in-house and outside experts, curators, writers, artists, and scholars.

This past year was a particularly productive one for the FMC. While continuing to distribute work from our collection to universities, museums, and festivals, we welcomed an unprecedented number of new works in 2024, and initiated several digitization and restoration projects of films in our collection originating on analog formats. We also collaborated with various institutions around New York City (e.g. Film at Lincoln Center, the New York Times, Independent, The Brooklyn Rail, Maysles Cinema, Light Industry, Greenwich House) to mount over 40 programs and series showcasing work within and/or related to our collection.

Most notably, the FMC spearheaded the nine-part series "Films for Social Change: Revisited and Expanded" with Maysles Documentary Center and Light Industry, which highlighted a plethora of rare (often un-digitized) social issue documentaries and activist films culled from within, and beyond, our library. We also teamed up with our friends at Lincoln Center for the ten-part NYC-themed series "Seeing the City: Avant-Garde Visions of New York," and soon thereafter were thrilled to participate in this year's Independent Art Fair at Spring Studios, where we showcased fine art-related films and videos from our collection in addition to newer work represented by fellow exhibitors. Additionally, an under-seen gem from our collection, Richard Preston's documentary Two by Louis Johnson, was digitized and selected as the inaugural film for the New York Times' new Op-Docs series "Encore." Most recently, the FMC was honored to host the first in a series of screenings heralding the return of the groundbreaking queer experimental film festival, MIX NYC, following a lengthy hiatus.

Another major project the FMC initiated this year was the creation of our own publishing imprint, devoted to releasing print and electronic books about films and filmmakers from within and beyond our community. Our first title, The Red Thread: Larry Gottheim and His Films, authored by Gottheim in collaboration with Scott Hammen of Eyewash Books, was released on April 23rd.

Our calendar is already filling up for the new year, with an eleven-part series of music-themed films from within and beyond the FMC's holdings slated for this summer, and a collaboration with the Public Art Fund to project films from our library at various outdoor NYC locations, including in the McCarren Park Pool (once its drained, of course!) and in Central Park. We also have a number of forthcoming titles due for release from our book imprint, including Jud Yalkut's never-before-published tome Electronic Zen: The Alternate Video Generation, a reprint of Scott Hammen's A Companion to Jonas Mekas' WALDEN, and a collection of writings about the life and work of filmmaker (and former FMC director) Marjorie Keller.

We are thrilled to continue expanding our programming, welcoming new work to our collection, and growing our community of artists, filmmakers, and filmgoers... but in order to do so, we need your help. As the end of our fiscal year approaches, please consider making a tax-deductible donation so that the Film-Makers' Cooperative can continue to thrive as one of the foremost communities, and champions, of independent and avant-garde art — and artists — in the world.