The London Film-Makers' Co-operative (LFMC) was founded in October 1966, and soon grew from its beginnings as a film-viewing group to become one of the major centres of a worldwide network of avant-garde film culture. In contrast to similar co-operative endeavours, the LFMC's activity was not limited to distribution – within a few years it was also running a regular program in its own cinema and, most notably, it democratized the means of production by establishing a film workshop that enabled filmmakers to control every stage of the creative process.

This special session is the launch of the "Re-engineering the industry" program, dedicated to a Mire laboratory machine, the Debrie contact printer, which makes it possible to copy 16mm film. In the coming months, masterclass, workshop and artist residency will aim at a dialogue between artists and technicians in order to perpetuate and develop the use of machinery abandoned by the film industry and to reappropriate its use for artistic purposes.