Space invaders hit 1970s Camden Town

Another month, another financial headache for London’s hard-pressed renters. Soaring property prices, prohibitive rents and deregulation has led many to argue that the capital currently has a dysfunctional housing market. This crisis has caused some city dwellers to seek a more sustainable and affordable alternative to owning bricks and mortar – fuelling an increase in legal squatting, houseboat living, co-operatives and co-housing.

Londoners looking for a less conventional solution to the housing crisis might be interested in the kind of kibbutz-style, communal lifestyle advocated in the 1960s and 70s by the likes of the Inter-Action Trust. This innovative, ambitious and even visionary community group was founded by the American-born E.D. Berman. A Rhodes scholar, Berman had come to Oxford from Harvard in 1962, and had a record of tireless activity as a playwright, poet, social activist, director, producer and community educator. In the same year this film was shot, he helped set up the first city farm in Chalk Farm, a model that soon proliferated nationwide.

Filmed in the summer of 1971, Camp in Camden highlights one Inter-Action initiative to foster communal living, which came into being when Berman negotiated a deal with Camden Council to make use of near-derelict buildings, including this one in Chalk Farm. Made for Inter-Action by Dick Foster, the film shows participants at this urban summer camp engaged in craft, preparing food and participating in a singalong and various performance pieces.

The London Borough of Camden was still young in 1971. Formed in 1965 by combining the metropolitan boroughs of St Pancras, Holborn and Hampstead, Camden quickly became a bit of a beacon for free-thinkers and devotees of alternative living. The work of the Inter-Action Trust and its philosophy fitted right in to this environment.

This was the second year of Inter-Action’s month-long camp, and Foster’s ‘day in the life’ study illuminates how participants lived and worked collectively, preparing and sharing a fish supper produced from their Billingsgate market catch. Rules were democratically agreed and each member earned the same wage. Anecdotal accounts suggest keeping alive the camp’s utopian ideals in the face of a challenging urban environment, partner-swapping, relationship breakdowns and outside influences wasn’t easy. Only the hardier members, including Berman himself, remained in the commune until its closure in the 80s.

The Trust may have embraced the experiential and optimistic mood of the 60s and early 70s, but it didn’t fit the vague, hippy-dippy idealism that was all too common in the period. It sought practical solutions to real problems, and issues were challenged proactively through engagement with the community and its existing institutions.

Inter-Action campaigned tirelessly for better housing and play facilities for Camden residents, as underlined in other films made by its own In-Film production unit (it also had its own publishing arm, In-Print). It reached out to all ages and classes, hoping to combat cultural deprivation by encouraging creativity. Ever-ambitious, Inter-Action eventually ran courses in theatre and computer skills, and built Europe’s first purpose-built community arts advisory centre in Kentish Town.

The group’s unconventional process of teaching evolved out of a creative play method, developed by Berman and his associates, which encouraged and embraced ‘interaction’ in the community and the use of street theatre to explore social issues. Inter-Active was informed by Berman’s work with Naftali Yavin, the London-based Israeli director and playwright, and the theatre they formed together, The Other Company. Influenced by the 1930s German Bauhaus movement and socialist and environmentalist ideals, they shared a vision to create a kibbutz-style theatre in the heart of London.

Berman can be seen in Camp in Camden, sporting a policeman’s helmet and thick dark beard and orchestrating the Dogg Troupe street parade. The Troupe staged alternative, improvised theatre informed by local concerns, and encouraged observers to join in with the Moon Men commotion as it weaved through the streets of NW5. 

Is that actor, comedian and playwright Patrick Barlow instructing the Moon Men? The future ‘Desmond Olivier Dingle’ of the National Theatre of Brent leads the camp for much of the film. Other associates of Berman and Inter-Action included theatre fellows Tom Stoppard and Joan Littlewood. He won admirers among politicians and even the royal family – the Prince of Wales made his own film about the Trust, and Berman was awarded an MBE in 1979.

The film brilliantly records the Trust landing in Camden and carrying out its public engagement mission, successfully gathering new recruits. Cheaply shot in black and white on 16mm film, it has a fitting DIY feel. There is no talking to camera; instead it embraces the newly fashionable fly-on-the-wall method. The one surprising concession to convention is the use of a narrator. An authoritative voice seems a little at odds with the democratic Inter-Action ethos. Perhaps it was felt the intended audience might have found it confusing without one?

The camera captures responses ranging from scepticism and alarm to delight, as onlookers and participants, adults and youngsters alike, marvel and puzzle at the bizarre spectacle unfurling around them. The mixed bunch of Camden summer campers shown here, including Brian with a learning disability, are just a few of the young people (and their parents) of varying abilities and backgrounds who were welcomed into these community-based, experimental workshops and activities. 

Director Dick Foster went on to make educational television programmes and documentaries for the BBC, but continued to explore alternative educational routes with programmes like Lessons in Freedom, which focused on Liverpool’s experimental school Scotland Road Free School, set up in 1971. Paul Morrison, a key member of the Newsreel Collective, produced. Morrison was a strong believer in the power of film, who liked to tackle more radical ideas not catered for in the mainstream. This film certainly offers a window on a diverse group and an alternative way of living and teaching.

Information about the Inter-Action alternative lifestyle and teachings is sparse, elusive and largely anecdotal. This valuable record brings some of those vague recollections to life. Eccentric, charming and funny, it wonderfully evokes the spirit of the Trust and its era.

The housing crisis continues and goes hand in hand with resistance to city regeneration, currently changing parts of the London landscape beyond recognition. Generation Rent, Somewhereto, Save Soho, Save Tin Pan Alley and the Music Venue Trust are among the campaigning groups currently challenging the status quo, taking their lead from lifelong grassroots activists like ED Berman and Inter-Action.

• Camp in Camden forms part of BFI Player’s new Other Grooves collection, an eccentric excursion to the furthest fringes of youth culture and alternative lifestyles.