About

The London Community Video Archive (LCVA) collects, preserves and shares community videos made between 1969 and 1994 in London and the South East.

Portable video recording — now a technology routinely embodied in smartphones — became available back in the early 1970s, making it possible for individuals and communities to make their own television. The medium was taken up by people ignored or under-represented in the mainstream media – tenants on housing estates, community action groups, women, black and global majority groups, young people, the LGBTQ+ community and people with disabilities. 

When we started in 2016 this rich heritage was under threat of disappearing, both because of the physical decay and disintegration of the tapes, and the ageing memories of the people who made them. Since then, we have been working to collect, digitise, catalogue and archive a selection of community videos, recovering and reviving this history so that it can be used as a resource for contemporary debates and activism.

In addition, we have conducted 30 oral history interviews with a representative sample of people active in Community Video. We also run an outreach and partnership programme of community screenings and events. 

Acknowledgements:

We would like to acknowledge that a number of videos in the collection contain outdated language when it comes to the representation of marginalised groups or specific experiences. We believe that it is important to include this material in its original form in order to represent the work that was being carried out at the time of its production.

Because of the collaborative and participatory nature of community video projects, the authorship and ownership of some videos is complicated to explain and account for. Where possible, we have acknowledged the facilitator of a project and added extra contextual information relating to the participants involved in its production. If you were involved in a video project featured on our website please get in touch so we can include this information. 

We are aware that this is an unfixed and growing project, we would like to remain open and responsive to new discoveries and interpretations. One way we are doing this is by developing archival and curatorial methods that work to address and acknowledge gaps in the archive. Please get in touch to organise a screening and be part of this project.