Backyard Biennial Film Programme: Whitechapel Gallery
15 Jul - 06 Sep 2026
Whitechapel Gallery, Zilkha Auditorium
LCVA presents: Community Action, Community Arts, Community Festival: From the Basement Project to The Big Show (1972–1976)
The London Community Video Archive’s film programme explores the legacy of radical community video and grassroots arts projects in 1970s East London. The programme is divided into 3 focus elements: Basement Project, E1 Festival and THAP.
The Basement Project combined a community arts workshop, an intermediate education centre and a general meeting place. Local community members, mainly young people, were taught how to use video equipment to produce community videos about their daily lives and surroundings.
The E1 Festival was a community-organised festival that took place throughout the 1970s on vacant land in Stepney, East London. Originally set up in protest, to raise money for the Junior Football League, it was a weekend long event of music, performing arts, stalls, and activities for people of all ages.
The Tower Hamlets Arts Project (THAP) emerged from a campaign for investment in locally-led arts rather than externally commissioned public art. Founded in 1976, it championed community participation and celebrated its achievements with a month-long ‘Big Show’ at the Whitechapel Art Gallery, 50 years ago in 1976.
A screening programme that will focus on East London communities, past and present and includes selections from Four Corners, London Community Video Archive, and OITIJ-JO Collective.
Alongside a specially curated selection of films from the last five decades by pioneering and influential artist John Smith will be screened each day. John Smith is the quintessential East End filmmaker and his films often find focus in his own neighbourhood or street.
All the films produced by Basement Project except Let’s See Action.
Basement Project:
Let’s See Action Basement Writers’ TV Show (1976) (BBC)
The Basement Project by Hazel Turner (1975)
Masks/Self-Portraits (1970)
Us & Crime (1974)
Election ’74 No. 2 (1974)
Conversation’s Over/Liz & Pauline (1979)
E1 Festival:
E1 Festival 1st Community Meeting (1974)
E1 Festival Rock & Roll (1973/74)
Tower Hamlets Arts Project (THAP):
Tower Hamlets Arts Band Big Show – Opening Party (1976)
Tower Hamlets Arts Band Big Show – Building the Exhibition (1976)
Tower Hamlets Arts Band Rock Concert No. 1 (1976)
Tower Hamlets Arts Band Big Show – Drama 4th Night 1st Tape (1976)
Tower Hamlets Arts Band (THAP) Basement Writers’ Lunchtime Show (1976)