The Film-Makers' Cooperative

The Film-Makers' Cooperative Est. 1961. "The coolest film organization in the world." —John Waters

The Film-Makers’ Cooperative is the largest archive and distributor of independent and avant-garde films in the world. Created by artists in 1961 as the distribution branch of the New American Cinema Group, the Coop has more than 5,000 films, videotapes, and DVDs in its collection.

matt projecting 16mm Coop x Bread and Puppet Theater films at Rockaway Film Festival last month, captured on film by All...
10/08/2026

matt projecting 16mm Coop x Bread and Puppet Theater films at Rockaway Film Festival last month, captured on film by Allison Sirota!

DIARIES, NOTES, AND SKETCHESSunday, September 27 at 2:00pmMonday, October 5 at 4:00pmJonas Mekas famously disliked the t...
09/25/2026

DIARIES, NOTES, AND SKETCHES
Sunday, September 27 at 2:00pm
Monday, October 5 at 4:00pm

Jonas Mekas famously disliked the term “experimental film” and discouraged its use to describe his work and that of his comrades in the New American Cinema. Millennium Film Workshop instead chose “Personal Cinema” as the descriptor for our ongoing series presenting new work from individual moving-image artists—a term we think would have been a lot more agreeable to Jonas. This program, which takes its name from the subtitle of Mekas’s own Walden (1968), features works in the diaristic style he pioneered, illustrating the idea of “Personal Cinema” in its purest form.

See films by Jack Waters, Liz Roberts, Holly Fisher, Barbara Rosenthal, Bill Creston, Erica Schreiner, Jard Lerebours, Devon Narine-Singh, Victoria Campbell, Saint Piñero, Anton Astudillo, Shakheem Williams, Jayson James Sloan, Charles de Agustin, Priyanka Das, and George Kuchar in DIARIES, NOTES, AND SKETCHES, part of our series LONG LIVE THE UNDERGROUND!: CELEBRATING SIX DECADES OF THE FILM-MAKERS’ COOPERATIVE AND MILLENNIUM FILM WORKSHOP, which runs at MoMA through October 8!

Details, showtimes, and tickets for this program (and all other programs in the series) can be found at moma.org/calendar/film/5931, which is also accessible at the Linktree in our bio!

NEW YORK NO STORYSaturday, September 26 at 4:30pmSunday, October 4 at 4:30pmMoMA The Museum of Modern Art The story of u...
09/25/2026

NEW YORK NO STORY
Saturday, September 26 at 4:30pm
Sunday, October 4 at 4:30pm
MoMA The Museum of Modern Art

The story of underground cinema is a New York Story. American avant-garde film culture grew out of the unique conditions of New York City’s density, diversity, and collective ethos. In contrast to the dominant Hollywood model, the New York underground elevates poetics over storytelling. These films prioritize lived experience of the city, awash in memo and intimacy. They are interior monologues recollecting recognizable sites: Coney Island, Times Square, Harlem, the subway system, and others; not narratives, but histories. Ken Jacobs once said, “Stories are for Bedtime,” and, after all, this is a city that never sleeps.

See films by Howard Guttenplan, Vivienne Dick, Steve Siegel, M Woods, Art Jones, Gregg Biermann, Peter Cramer, Jon Buchanan, and Henry Hills in the program NEW YORK NO STORY, part of our series LONG LIVE THE UNDERGROUND!: CELEBRATING SIX DECADES OF THE FILM-MAKERS’ COOPERATIVE AND MILLENNIUM FILM WORKSHOP, which screens at MoMA through October 8!

Showtimes and tickets for this program (and all of the programs in the series) are available at moma.org/calendar/film/5931, which is also accessible at the Linktree in our bio!

Last night was one for the books! Major thanks to everyone who joined us for the opening night screening and reception f...
09/25/2026

Last night was one for the books! Major thanks to everyone who joined us for the opening night screening and reception for our series at MoMA The Museum of Modern Art, LONG LIVE THE UNDERGROUND!: CELEBRATING SIX DECADES OF THE FILM-MAKERS’ COOPERATIVE AND MILLENNIUM FILM WORKSHOP! It was an honor and thrill to have the man, the myth, the legend Mike Kuchar with us, offering profound insight into his creative process, the making of 1967’s GREEN DESIRE, and generously sharing so many wondrous anecdotes about the formation of the Coop and Millennium and all of the extraordinary artists who built these organizations and formed NYC’s underground film scene in the 1960s.

Join us for eight additional programs (each screened twice!), featuring works by nearly 100 filmmakers from the Coop and Millennium’s shared community, over the next two weeks. Visit the linktree in our bio for program details, showtimes, and tickets.

Long live the underground! 🎞️

Thank you David Hudson for covering LONG LIVE THE UNDERGROUND! in Criterion Collection’s Current! Join us beginning tom...
09/22/2026

Thank you David Hudson for covering LONG LIVE THE UNDERGROUND! in Criterion Collection’s Current!

Join us beginning tomorrow night at MoMA MoMA The Museum of Modern Art for our collaborative series celebrating six decades of The Film-Makers’ Cooperative and Millennium Film Workshop.

Programs, showtimes, and tickets can be found at the Linktree in our bio!

THANK YOU to everyone who joined us yesterday at Rockaway Film Festival for our collaborative outdoor performance/screen...
09/22/2026

THANK YOU to everyone who joined us yesterday at Rockaway Film Festival for our collaborative outdoor performance/screening with Bread and Puppet Theater! It was a truly memorable evening filled with bread, puppets, and filmic gems sourced from the collection of The Film-Makers’ Cooperative (including Lise Noiseux’s 1967 Bread & Puppet doc PERE NOEL USA and DeeDee Halleck and George Griffin’s landmark 1975 doc MEADOWS GREEN). What a magical way to spend the last day of summer! 🎞️🥖🎭🌞

MAKE LOVE, NOT WARFriday, September 26 at 6:30pmSaturday, October 3 at 4:30pmMoMA The Museum of Modern Art Subversive ci...
09/20/2026

MAKE LOVE, NOT WAR
Friday, September 26 at 6:30pm
Saturday, October 3 at 4:30pm
MoMA The Museum of Modern Art

Subversive cinema took a variety of forms throughout the 1960s, from explorations of sexual transgression to protest against the war in Vietnam. In SONG FOR RENT, Jack Smith plays a camp version of Rose Kennedy—alcoholic and festooned with American paraphernalia—while Kate Smith belts “God Bless America” on the soundtrack. DANGLING PARTICIPLE is a found-footage work made entirely of old classroom films, re-edited to an organ music soundtrack and new narration that spoofs sex-ed instruction. THE DRAFT CARD BURNERS is a straightforward and invaluable record of downtown New York war protests from the fall of 1965. VIET-FLAKES is a more experimental antiwar film, a dynamic collage of American pop music and harrowing still images showing the aftermath of US military attacks on women and children in Vietnam. Real-life cats are cops and rats are rebels in Joyce Wieland’s metaphorical film about tyranny and protest, with the rats looking to escape to Canada. The films by Paul Sharits, Scott Bartlett, and Rosalind Schneider use different cinematic strategies to depict the sexual act, from impressionistic abstraction (ON) to rapid-fire mechanistic structuralism (PIECE MANDALA/END WAR) to the straightforward, lyrical approach of LO******NG.

***

See these films and more in LONG LIVE THE UNDERGROUND!: CELEBRATING SIX DECADES OF THE FILM-MAKERS’ COOPERATIVE AND MILLENNIUM FILM WORKSHOP, screening at MoMA from September 23rd to October 8th.

Tickets for the MAKE LOVE, NOT WAR program can be purchased here: https://www.moma.org/calendar/events/11634

For full series info and tickets for all programs, visit: https://www.moma.org/calendar/film/5931.

“True to their historic roots, the Film-Makers‘ Coop and Millennium Film Workshop remain dynamic contemporary arts organ...
09/15/2026

“True to their historic roots, the Film-Makers‘ Coop and Millennium Film Workshop remain dynamic contemporary arts organizations devoted to the creation, distribution, and exhibition of work by emerging artists... At a time when the insane costs of rent in New York City and the defunding of public arts have made it ever more difficult to create and exhibit meaningful, formally innovative work, artist-run spaces like the Coop and Millennium have never been more crucial.”

Visit the linktree in our bio to read artist, writer, and FMC Board member Ara Osterweil’s (Ara Osterweil) essay, published today in MoMA magazine, about the our forthcoming series with Millennium Film Workshop at MoMA The Museum of Modern Art!

LONG LIVE THE UNDERGROUND!: CELEBRATING SIX DECADES OF THE FILM-MAKERS’ COOPERATIVE AND MILLENNIUM FILM WORKSHOP screens at MoMA from September 23—October 8. For tickets and additional information, visit: moma.org/calendar/film/5931.

Marie Menken’s classic GLIMPSE OF THE GARDEN (1957), filmed on 16mm in Dwight Ripley’s garden, screens next Thursday in ...
09/05/2026

Marie Menken’s classic GLIMPSE OF THE GARDEN (1957), filmed on 16mm in Dwight Ripley’s garden, screens next Thursday in the second and final installment of KESSELGARTEN: an outdoor screening devoted to films about gardens, immigrants, and unruly public space. Thanks to all who joined us on 8/23 for Part 1; join us again in 6th Street & Avenue B community garden on 9/10 at 8pm for Menken’s film plus Chantal Akerman’s HISTORIES D’AMERIQUE: FOOD, FAMILY AND PHILOSOPHY, also presented on 16mm. Co-cueated by Zoe Beloff Mina 🪲 & matt. Free and open to the public! Will we see you there? 🪴🎞️

On SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 20th, The Film-Makers’ Coop joins forces with Bread and Puppet Bread and Puppet Theater and Rockawa...
09/03/2026

On SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 20th, The Film-Makers’ Coop joins forces with Bread and Puppet Bread and Puppet Theater and Rockaway Film Festival Rockaway Film Festival for an unforgettable evening of bread, puppets, and films.

Will you be there? 🎞️

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