The Connection (1961), Academy Cinema poster, British

Artist: Peter Strausfeld (1910-1980)

Unframed: 30 x 40 in. (76 x 102 cm)

Peter Strausfeld was born in Germany and came to Britain in 1938. During the war he developed a close friendship with George Hoellering, the director of the Academy Cinema in Oxford Street, London. Hoellering did not like the studio issued film posters, and commissioned Strausfeld to create a series of posters to be pasted up across the London Underground network. Strausfeld designed over three hundred images over a thirty year period, all of which were printed by hand using his trademark lino-cut technique. Only two hundred of each design were ever printed, thereby making them extremely scarce.

This film was directed by the American filmmaker Shirley Clarke and was adapted by Jack Gelber from his play of the same name. It was Clarke's first feature film, and is the first known film to use the found footage format. In this film a group of heroin addicted jazz musicians are waiting for their connection. An aspiring director has agreed to pay for their fix, as they've agreed to let him film the connection scene. The film was part of the emerging New York independent feature film movement, and paved the way for a new style, which tackled social issues in black and white low budget films. It was meant to be used as a test case in the fight to abolish censorship rules in New York. Its intention is to document the bohemian lifestyle in New York in the early 1960s.