Organised in collaboration with the Feminism, Sexual Politics, and Visual Culture Centre for Doctoral Training at Loughborough University.

We’re really excited to be screening Nightcleaners (1975), a landmark work of experimental political film recently named one of the BFI’s ‘10 great films about England’s radical history’. Chronicling an early 1970s campaign to unionize night cleaners in London, it prefigures contemporary issues around the intersections of race, gender and precarious labour; as well as recent waves of cleaners’ struggles. Its daring form caused controversy at the time but has since inspired numerous experimental film-makers, including the Black Audio Film Collective.

Following the film there’ll be an audience discussion with invited respondents: Joni Carter, who works as a cleaner at Loughborough University; Marlous van Boldrik, who is studying for a PhD in artists’ uses and representations of cleaning; and Miffy Ryan, an artist who has both worked as a cleaner and used cleaning in her practice. There will be a short introduction to the film by Dr Elspeth Mitchell, whose research explores feminist theory and artists’ film.