Every Day Except Christmas

It is midnight in the winter of 1957. In Sussex, a truck loaded with vegetables leaves for London. While the driver steers the truck along quiet roads, the radio plays the national anthem God Save the Queen. At this hour, all roads lead to Covent Garden, the legendary market that only closes for Christmas and is otherwise open 364 days a year, 12 hours a day. Director Lindsay Anderson portrayed those 12 hours chronologically, using a 35mm camera to capture market vendors, their merchandise, transactions, coffee breaks, and customers. The camera observes while a voice-over offers commentary and the soundtrack provides snippets of market noise. The black-and-white film was dedicated to seven workers who worked long hours every day, such as Alice, one of the many porters. As Alice wearily plops down onto an empty cart, the Happy Wanderers street band comes around the corner playing a merry tune. Another day has gone by, and the preparations for the next are underway. Every Day Except Christmas belongs to a movement called Free Cinema, which Anderson and other directors founded in the late 1950s to free themselves from the strict rules of the documentary genre. (International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam)