Exitstencil Press have released an updated online version of a short film, originally shot by Mick Duffield in the gardens of Dial House in 1971 and featuring Penny Rimbaud and Gee Vaucher. Says Rimbaud of the film:
Tea Piece – a pot of tea, 40 years in the making…. Like they say, history repeats itself. A really terrific, short movie.
Comment: I think (and I’m happy to be corrected) that this film (in its original edit) enjoyed its most recent public screening back in 2002, as the opening shot in a bill of Crass films shown at the National Film Theatre in London on 15 June, along with Autopsy and Yes Sir, I Will.
I remember that, in the Q&A, a member of the audience asked Gee: ‘what was the first tea film all about, then?’. She began to formulate an answer and then stopped as she got a clear view of the questioner. ‘Steve [Ignorant]!’, she shouted. ‘I didn’t recognise you. I thought you were just some bald bloke.’ When the laughter died down, Rimbaud supplied a typically forthright exploration of the film’s message.
