contribution presented at the memorial to ‘Malcolm Le eminence Grice’ (1940-2024), University of the Arts, London.

Malcolm was a 'power house’ - leading the way.... He and I met at the Drury Lane Arts Lab, both using projectors in the theatre space. I was also in the basement cinema projecting films for Dave Curtis. Malcolm described the equipment he'd recently acquired to set up a film workshop. A week or so later we had the machines running at Robert St, where Fred Drummond and others had installed a cinema with fold up seats. Integrated artists' cinema had arrived!

Malcolm played a major part instituting The New Arts Lab for Art and Technology and produced his first masterpiece there, Berlin Horse, only recently recognised and purchased by Tate Modern.
And then, we were oO again, to the Dairy...and then the Piano factory, and then, Gloucester Avenue.

One Saturday morning he came over from Harrow to my one-bedroom flat in Shepherds Bush, needing a second signature. "He was a family man as well! ; two toddlers entered; Oliver and Josey. Fortunately, I had hot chocolate to hand. Not long after I was to meet Judith, and so began a regular and on- going friendship with the Le Grice family.

The Dairy attracted a growing informal school of artists, with Malcolm leading the team lobbying arts funding bodies, whilst writing journal columns and a book or two, setting up a uni course or several, all whilst maintaining an output of films. He always had time to debate, in particular with Peter - 'the famed Gidal/Le Grice double act'.

"Thanks guys...for your ideas and leadership. "

The LFMC became a regular and significant component of London's vibrant counter-cultural scene in the 70s and, through Malcolm's many contacts, part of European and North American filmmaking activity. With others, he drove the international festivals in London and Edinburgh, using contacts he generously and willingly shared, to help make the work of the LFMC School of Artists widely available.

In the mid-70s, another masterpiece, 'After Manet', was shot in a paddock of the farm I rented in Devon. Malcolm, William, Marilyn, Annabelle and Gill stayed a couple of days, enjoying the local beverage from a cider farm named Inches. Malcolm sent a note later, playing withe puns he was fond of cracking: 'Thank you, and for the many miles of inches'.

His mission continued after the Co-op closed its doors, applying his expertise, when LuX and TheBFVASC at Central St Martins were established.

Excursions were a feature of being with the Le Grices, very often in the teeth of a gale on some hill or moor. Then recovery inside with drinks and guitars,

with which Malcolm was an enthusiastic player, a graduate of the Plymouth approach to sounds and musics.... Plymouth was where he developed a love of the internal combustion engine. A succession of cars carrying him and the family all over England. His prized wheels, a vintage Jaguar roadster. To ride in it was a terrifying experience; he would be shouting out the peculiarities of controlling the beast as it hurtled down the Chalfont by-pass at 85 miles an hour.

Malcolm thrilled us in so many ways The last time for me in Stratford a year ago, as we slung back some Jim Beam, after Judith's gourmet lunch. May there be many more. Judith, Oliver and Ben! Hi Josey!

Malcolm Le eminence Grice!

.....comrade-in-frames Mike Leggett, May 2025