The Basement Project

Maggie Pinhorn started her career in the mainstream film industry in the 1960s, but by the early 1970s, dissatisfied with it, she became an early pioneer of using film and video making in the community. The first film she made with a mixed group of young people in Tower Hamlets - Tunde's Film - was a seminal film of the period. The process of making the film became the basis of Maggie setting up The Basement Project, which went on to become the Basement Community Arts project. At that time, Maggie had no knowledge of anybody else working with community projects to make film, so had no real point of reference. As she explains, "of course there were plenty of independent filmmakers going out and making all sorts of films in all sorts of ways, but because I was actually working with this group and getting them to help direct the film, and edit the film, be part of the film, definitely all the way it was very much their film - with me, yes, in charge of making sure it happened - but they had ownership of it." At the heart of her work, Maggie believes in giving people from all backgrounds opportunities. "Ultimately," she says, "building strength in communities is critical, and what’s important is that those communities do have a serious opportunity to express what they think and feel."