6.30-8.30pm

Rio Cinema, 107 Kingsland High St, London E8 2PB (map)‍

Breaking Ground was an evening of film and discussion with film director, Michelle Deignan and special guests focusing on the radical feminist connections, struggles and politics that constellated around Centerprise, Rio Cinema, Lenthall Road Workshop and the London Irish Women’s Centre in the 1980s.

The event was an opportunity to find out more about the radical feminist connections and hear from some of the women who were there at the time about Hackney’s feminist and LGBT cultural activisms and campaigns that shaped community, politicised a generation of women and changed lives.

Artist and filmmaker Michelle Deignan told one part of this story in her brilliant documentary Breaking Ground on the London Irish Women’s Centre, a radical organisation founded to support generations of Irish women in London. The film does more than just recount the story of the Centre in Stoke Newington from its origins in the 1980s to its closure in 2012. It is a creative fusion of montage, archive and oral history that greatly contributes to our understanding of radical feminism, national identity and sexual politics during this period. Made by an all women crew, the film combines captivating and candid archive footage filmed in London over 30 years, with thoughtful and provocative accounts from some of the amazing women who were part of the women’s movement in the city during that time.

More information about Club Des Femmes here.