ARTWAR

Jeff Keen’s distance from the British experimental film scene was possibly a result of his own reluctance to be part of an artistic group, especially one with very crystalized formal and theoretical devices. The British avant-garde cinema in the time of Keen’s artistic activity did not deviate much from the established tendencies of structural, material and performative film and Keen’s work did not fit in any of those categories. William Fowler mentions Keen’s interest to have his work appear on terrestrial television and that his cinematic “weapon of choice” was Super 8 film, as “...16mm the preferred avant-garde gauge of the 1970s is too close to 35mm and that means official cinema and acceptance...” To consider television as a means for the dissemination of his work, suggests that Keen trusted that a much wider public would comprehend his experimental approach as one prompted by ideological and economic necessities – not by underground style.