Touring: The Other Free Cinema

Films made in the style of Free Cinema but not included in the original programme at the NFT. The influence of the movement is clear in these fascinating observations of life in the UK in the 1950s and 1960s.

87 mins total

The Vanishing Street - New Print

  • Dir Robert Vas
  • 1962 / b&w / 20 mins

Documenting the disappearance of part of London's East End, The Vanishing Street is also a record of the Jewish community who lived there for over seventy years. Against a soundtrack of Yiddish songs and music and snatches of conversation, we see life in the synagogue, on the streets, in shops and at the slaughterhouse, all of which are about to be replaced by high-rise flats.

One Potato, Two Potato - New Print

  • Dir Leslie Daiken
  • 1957 / b&w / 22 mins

Filmed over a 12-month period, this study of children playing games in London streets and playgrounds stands out for its freshness and spontaneity. Daiken achieves a remarkable skill and understanding in the way he captures the children whose games range from the repetitive tongue twisters chanted by the girls to a small boy trailing a stick along iron railings.

Tomorrow's Saturday - New Print

  • Dir Michael Grigsby
  • 1962 / b&w / 18 mins

Grigsby's film is about Friday night in a northern textile town, observing the life of the community, working and resting, and in particular its women working at home and in the factory. Grigsby lets the image speak for itself as we see mills closing down for the weekend, boys playing football in the street, families at the laundrette, music and singing in the pubs and dogs barking.

Gala Day

  • Dir John Irvin
  • 1963 / b&w / 26 mins

Decades before he turned his hand to the likes of Hamburger Hill and Widows' Peak, John Irvin made this vibrant, Argus-eyed account of a miners' festival in Durham, brass bands, Labour MPs, rain and all. Although the film's techniques come from Free Cinema, its stance is strongly realistic and anti-romantic.

"An important film... positive, vital, pulsing with energy, and deeply in tune with the people it is showing."' Monthly Film Bulletin

"Jaunty, loving and lyrical." Sunday Telegraph