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Tea Leaf
An intimate account of frustration and disarray in 1980s Britain from the point of view of a young woman.
Overview
Ruth Novaczeks first film takes the form of a confession to the filmmaker’s new lover. It was originally shot super 8 and re-filmed from two projectors to create various super impositions. For Novaczek, this is a film about what she terms “the typical Jewish London woman of (her) generation”, who grew up in the 1960s, denying her culture and sexuality, only to try to come to terms with it during the tumultuous Thatcherite 1980s.
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.
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