Celebrating Six Decades of the Film-Makers’
Cooperative and Millennium Film Workshop

Stan Brakhage’s 1958 silent film Anticipation of the Night is a kinetic study in rhythm and color, with images that evoke the passage from childhood innocence to adult angst. Now considered a milestone of the American avant-garde, it was initially rejected for screening in New York because of its seemingly formless approach. The need for distributors and exhibitors who were open to the burgeoning underground film movement—decidedly non-commercial, ultra-low-budget projects that were radical in style and content and often shot on 16mm and 8mm film—led directly to the creation of the Film-Makers’ Cooperative in 1961 and Millennium Film Workshop in 1966. Both organizations, so crucial to the growth of the underground in the 1960s, are thriving today, and continue to introduce new filmmakers while honoring cinema’s rich history of personal expression.

A disparate group of filmmakers who called themselves the New American Cinema Group, led by Jonas Mekas, Shirley Clarke, Gregory Markoupoulos, and others, formed the Film-Makers’ Cooperative to distribute the work of any artist who chose to deposit their films. Its spirit was captured in a manifesto by Mekas: “We believe that cinema is indivisibly a personal expression…. We don’t want false, polished, slick films—we prefer them rough, unpolished, but alive; we don’t want rosy films—we want them the color of blood.” Five years later, Millennium Film Workshop was formed, led by Ken Jacobs, who chose the name to convey what he called “an atmosphere of possibility,” a future where “people could do their own thing.” Originally based at the St. Mark’s Church, Millennium soon set up shop on the Lower East Side, offering equipment access, work space for post-production, and weekly screenings in its ongoing Personal Cinema series.

Established during a galvanizing cultural moment amid deep social unrest and change, The Film-Makers’ Cooperative and Millennium Film Workshop maintain their missions today against the currents of our own turbulent era, as vital and necessary as ever. This series reflects that continuity by celebrating just some of the thousands of filmmakers whose work they have fostered, distributed, and screened. Selections will be presented in nine thematic programs: Anticipation of the (Opening) Night; Roots of the NY Underground; Make Love, Not War; Seventies Structures; Cinemas of Transgression; Quotidian Pleasures; New York No Story; Diaries, Notes, and Sketches; and The Material is the Message.

Quotidian Pleasures

Sat, Sep 26, 2:00 p.m. and Sun, Oct 4, 2:00 p.m.
MoMA, Floor T2, Theater 2
The Roy and Niuta Titus Theater 2

Peace O’Mind. 1983. USA. Directed by Mary Filippo. 9 mins. 16mm.
Still Life with Woman and Four Objects. 1984. USA. Directed by Lynne Sachs. 4 mins. 16mm.
Spent Moments. 1984. USA. Directed by Jean Sousa. 10 mins. 16mm.
Fragment. 1987. USA. Directed by Laura J. Padgett. 2 mins. 16mm.
Crystal Snow. 1973. USA. Directed by Jacob Burckhardt. 5 mins. 16mm.
Autumn Leaves. 1994. USA. Directed by Donna Cameron. 4 mins. 16mm.
Moon Collage #7. 2026. USA. Directed by Robert Mizaki. 3 mins. 16mm.
Phases of the Moon: The Parapsychology of Everyday Life. 1968. USA. Directed by Tom Chomont. 5 mins. 16mm.
The Dance. 1992. USA. Directed by Jim Hubbard. 8 mins. 16mm.
She-Va. 1973. USA. Directed by Marjorie Keller. 3 mins. Digital.
Embryonic Journey. 2025. USA. Directed by Matt McKinzie. 5 mins. Digital.
Rain Painting. 2019. USA. Directed by Ann Deborah Levy. 6 mins. Digital.
Inhale/Exhale. 2020. USA. Directed by Michèle Saint-Michel. 4 mins. Digital.
Lament Poems for Neptune Avenue. 2023. USA. Directed by Sage Ó Tuama. 10 mins. Digital.
How to Disappear Completely. 2020. USA. Directed by Cameron Granger. 2 mins. Digital.
Becoming Bimbo. 2023. USA. Directed by Abygai Peña. 1 min. Digital.
Rituals. 2017. Brazil. Directed by Francis de Assis Abdullah. 4 mins. Digital.