Long Live the Underground! at The Museum of Modern Art

The Museum of Modern Art announces a film series, Long Live the Underground!: Celebrating Six Decades of the Film-Makers' Cooperative and Millennium Film Workshop, from September 23–October 8, 2026.

Stan Brakhage's 1958 silent film Anticipation of the Night is a kinetic study in rhythm and color, with images that evoke the passage from childhood innocence to adult angst. Now considered a milestone of the American avant-garde, it was initially rejected for screening in New York because of its seemingly formless approach. The need for distributors and exhibitors who were open to the burgeoning underground film movement—decidedly non-commercial, ultra-low-budget projects that were radical in style and content and often shot on 16mm and 8mm film—led directly to the creation of the Film-Makers' Cooperative in 1961 and Millennium Film Workshop in 1966. Both organizations, so crucial to the growth of the underground in the 1960s, are thriving today, and continue to introduce new filmmakers while honoring cinema's rich history of personal expression.

A disparate group of filmmakers called the New American Cinema Group, led by Jonas Mekas, Shirley Clarke, Gregory Markoupoulos, and others, formed the Film-Makers' Cooperative to distribute the work of any artist who chose to deposit their films. Five years later, Millennium Film Workshop was formed, led by Ken Jacobs, who chose the name to convey an atmosphere of possibility, a future where people could do their own thing. Originally based at the St. Mark's Church, Millennium soon set up shop on the Lower East Side, offering equipment access, work space for post-production, and weekly screenings in its ongoing Personal Cinema series.

Established during a galvanizing cultural moment amid deep social unrest and change, the Film-Makers' Cooperative and Millennium Film Workshop maintain their missions today against the currents of our own turbulent era, as vital and necessary as ever. This series reflects that continuity by celebrating just some of the thousands of filmmakers whose work they have fostered, distributed, and screened. Selections will be presented in nine thematic programs.