Artwork > 1996-1999

Volcano! flyers and tickets 1996-99 (TH, JT)

Volcano! was the autumn festival of the London film groups that had arisen from the networking of the early nineties in which Exploding Cinema was a central forum. Volcano! shows the contribution to the wider underground scene in London made by those involved with Exploding Cinema.

The first Volcano! - which was scheduled to run in parallel with the London Film Festival - ran from the 8th to the 23rd November 1996 and included the following London film groups: The Halloween Society, KingKey Movies (Vito Roco), Films that make You Go Hmmm, OMSK, My Eyes! My Eyes!, [SIC], Cinergy, Backspace, Kinodisobey, Renegade Arts, Peeping Tom, Uncut, Shaolin and Exploding Cinema; with an additional international night at the Ritzy.

By early 1997 the network contact list of the Exploding Cinema stretched way beyond London, whilst some of the 1996 London groups had already disappeared. This underground film scene in 1997 was impressive in its scale and diversity ( see Appendix 3 ). That year Volcano! took place from 1st to the 15th November. Venues included an old sweatshop in Fashion street, East London, the Spitz in Spitalfields, a disused concrete mill in Greenwich. The final show was in a small warehouse behind Kings Cross station included a 'best of the festival' selection put on by all the groups involved but mainly using Exploding Cinema's equipment.

The Volcano! Film Festival was the nearest that Britain had to a low budget film festival that was truly independent from both public and commercial sectors. In 1998 it was organised, without any public funding, by six London based 'underground' film groups. It had box office attendance of over 2500 people who went to nineteen events over eight days. At least 280 films and videos were projected, plus dozens of performances and many installations. International in scope, there were groups attending from Germany and New York.

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