Nightcleaners by Berwick Street Collective (1972-75) (extract)

Nightcleaners Part 1 was a documentary made by members of the Berwick Street Collective (Marc Karlin, Mary Kelly, James Scott and Humphry Trevelyan), about the campaign to unionize the women who cleaned office blocks at night and who were being victimized and underpaid. Intending at the outset to make a campaign film, the Collective was forced to turn to new forms in order to represent the forces at work between the cleaners, the Cleaner's Action Group and the unions - and the complex nature of the campaign itself. The result was an intensely self-reflexive film, which implicated both the filmmakers and the audience in the processes of precarious, invisible labour. It is increasingly recognised as a key work of the 1970s and as an important precursor, in both subject matter and form, to current political art practice.
Nightcleaners is being shown as part of CCA's Beta Movement programme. Diverse in theme, scope and technique, Beta Movement offers a chance to engage with artists films, radical documentary and landmark narrative cinema on the last Thursday of every month. The films deal with issues from the social to the spiritual, deploying innovative filmic techniques and striking visuals.
Nightcleaners
Thursday 27 May, 7pm
Dir. Berwick Street Film Collective, 1975, 90m, 18+
In this highly influential and controversial documentary the complex dynamics between gender, social class and economic power are played out.
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