Long Take: Workers’ Film a Century Apart, Come on Pilgrim
Stevens, S. 2026. Long Take: Workers’ Film a Century Apart, Come on Pilgrim.
Stevens, S. 2026. Long Take: Workers’ Film a Century Apart, Come on Pilgrim.
| Title | Long Take: Workers’ Film a Century Apart, Come on Pilgrim |
|---|---|
| Creators | Stevens, S. |
| Description | LONG TAKE is a series of three screenings at Four Corners, LUX and MayDay Rooms, which brings together films by the 1930s Workers’ Film & Photo League with contemporary activist films to explore themes of housing, empire and work. Screening 2 Come on Pilgrim Spirit of Mayday Film & Photo League, 1937, 11 mins In 1937, members of the Film & Photo League lined the route of London's May Day procession, armed with cameras with their mottos 'Show Workers’ Films' and 'Make Workers’ Films'. The procession was organised by the Communist Party of Great Britain and other left-wing groups. Merry Month of May Film & Photo League, 1937, 15 mins The 1937 coronation of King George VI coincided with London busmen striking for a seven and a half hour working day. This film captures the patriotic fervour of the celebrations juxtaposed with scenes of military destruction and urban poverty. This ambitious production survives incomplete, but its experimental approach resonates with films like Vigo’s A Propo De Nice (1930) and Stork’s Histoire du Soldat inconnu (1931). Come on Pilgrim Mars Saude, 2022, 27 mins A series of visual field recordings and staged interventions captured on expired film, Come On Pilgrim draws on the filmmaker's experience of living in a flat overlooking the Mayflower steps in Plymouth. This location serves as a jumping-off point to interrogate histories of settler-colonialism, identity, and mythos in the surrounding landscape, from the viewpoint of a recent immigrant. Lagareh – The Last Born Alberta Whittle, 2022, 43 mins This film discusses theories of abolition, rebellion, ancestral knowledge and love. Shot in Scotland, London and Barbados, it focuses on the strength of contemporary Black womxn, whose acts of resistance are bound together through conceptual storytelling. It calls for radical change in Western society, where racist, imperialist agendas permeate through a culture of systemic institutional racism. The film's title refers to Sheku Bayoh, who lost his life in Scotland while in police custody. Discussion with moving image artist Mars Saude, artist and researcher Matthias Kispert, and artist filmmaker and lecturer Samuel Stevens. |
| Collaborators | |
| Curator | Kispert, M. |
| Date | 14 Mar 2026 |
| Editors | Stevens, S. |