Alone

A girl alone in her room, smoking, putting on make-up, masturbating. For Steve Dwoskin, Alone represented a departure into projecting feelings and senses of loneliness, timelessness and the sensual self. Alone was shot in New York in 1964 just before Dwoskin moved to the UK. Trained as a graphic artist, painter and photographer, recognized and exhibited before making his first film in 1961, Dwoskin made films that frame and structure the unfettered improvisations of primarily non-professional actors to focus on the converging extremes of social and private behaviour, sex and solitude. This film is not suitable for young audiences.

Founded in 1966, the London Film-Makers’ Co-operative started life at Better Books, a counter-culture bookshop on Charing Cross Road, where a group led by poet Bob Cobbing and filmmakers Stephen Dwoskin and Jeff Keen met to screen films. Initially inspired by the activities of the New American Cinema Group in New York, the London Co-op grew into a pioneering organisation that incorporated a film workshop, cinema space and distribution office. During its four-decade history, the Co-op played a crucial role in establishing film as an art form in the UK and participated in a vibrant international film scene. This BFI Player collection brings together new scans of films distributed by and/or produced at the London Co-op.