Birmingham Filmmakers' Co-op

The Birmingham Filmmakers' Co-op was a local chapter of the Alabama Filmmakers' Co-op, a statewide non-profit organization founded in 1977 and based in Huntsville. The group sponsored several programs with funding from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Alabama State Council on the Arts and Humanities, the Southern Arts Federation, and private foundations.

The Birmingham chapter, headed by Mike Boyer, was organized in 1979. Its mission was to help local filmmakers support each other by sharing skills, equipment, facilities and opportunities. It also offered practical and theoretical instruction to aspiring filmmakers. The group met at the Greater Birmingham Arts Alliance at 2114 1st Avenue North.

Among the group's first initiatives were the "Birmingham Bare Bones" film contest and a "Film-in-the-Schools" program under which the group provided an artist-in-residence to teach filmmaking at a local school.

An unrelated group, the Alabama Filmmakers Association, was incorporated in Anniston in 1993.

References

• Blackerby, Cheryl (February 23, 1979) "Film makers organize to join 'artistic activity'" Birmingham Post-Herald, p. A6