Protest and free cinema

Protest and free cinema is a style of filmmaking. A protest to the dominants of the mainstream is the british free cinema of the 1950's. Free cinema had given exposure to a new generation British filmmakers working outside the mainstream, making a virtue their low budgets and their crude equipment. Protest and free cinema filmmakers had shoe string budgets, unpaid crews, and handheld cameras (16 mil bolex cameras, compared to Hollywood who use 52 mm film and standard academy cameras). They had styles and attitude and were funded by the BFI's experimental film fund. They featured working class people at work and in society. It gave a "fly on the wall" effect. For example, "The Lambeth Boys" film studies work that has been done on the role of a short film as a agent of social change.