Online Exhibition: Berwick Street Collective: Nightcleaners (Part 1)
3 - 17 November 2025
Online. Register here to watch the film online.
LUX is showing Berwick Street Collective’s documentary ‘Nightcleaners (Part 1) ‘online for 2 weeks, marking the 50th anniversary of Nightcleaners (1975).
‘Nightcleaners (Part 1)’ was made in 1975 by the Berwick Street Film Collective including Marc Karlin, Mary Kelly, James Scott and Humphry Trevelyan. The film follows a group of women office cleaners fighting for fair pay and union rights in the 1970s.
Although it began as a campaign film, Nightcleaners grew into something more. It questions how struggles for justice are shown on screen, and how both filmmakers and audiences are part of those struggles. Fifty years later, it still speaks to issues of insecure work, care, and collective action.
This online exhibition has been developed with Aliaskar Abarkas, who invited LUX to revisit ‘Nightcleaners’ as part of his new project, ‘Speak Louder’. The project Speak Louder brings together artists and cultural workers to talk about the emotional and material conditions of creative work today.
The Speak Louder working group will meet regularly between November 2025 and May 2026, led by Aliaskar as part of his Collection Engagement Residency at LUX. Their conversations will lead to a public sharing event in spring 2026.
An open call for participants will be live during the online exhibition (3–17 November).
Click here to learn more about Speak Louder working group
The Berwick Street Film Collective was formed in 1970 by filmmakers James Scott, Marc Karlin and Humphry Trevelyan, later joined by Mary Kelly. They first came together to make Nightcleaners (Part 1), a film about women office cleaners fighting for fair pay and union rights.
The group worked collectively, experimenting with new ways to show real life on film. Their films explored politics, class and daily struggles in 1970s Britain.
The group worked both collaboratively and individually. Their approach helped define the avant-garde documentary movement that reshaped British film in the 1970s.
Aliaskar Abarkas is an Iranian artist based in London.