Ladma

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The Ladma International (LI) is an international artistic movement which has parallels with Dadaism, Surrealism, Existentialism, Anti-consumerism, Fascism, Punk, Avant-gardism and Anarchism. It transcends all mediums, existing between them all (but is commonly defined as "film").

Formed in 2001 the LI is active today and has aspirations for major social and political transformation. The Ladma Manifesto defines Ladma as "the theory or practice of subverting consciousness through the juxtaposition of counter-factual aesthetics". Ladmaism is in essence an anti-ideology and rejects all mainstream metanarratives and prescriptive discourses. It is a post-post-modern dialectic expose which savages the futility of present day society through film.

Followers of Ladma seek to transcend everyday reality towards one that incorporates the imagination and the unconscious. The end goal is complete personal, cultural, political and social revolution. At various times Ladmas have aligned themselves with communism, anarchism and fascism in order to advance the personal imaginary inherent in all thought. This does not imply a dogmatic ideological commitment within the Ladma International. The LI repudiates the monotonous consumerism of global capitalism and seeks to invert neo-liberalism by deepening the "individual" through the satirical parody of detournement. Ladmaism hijacks the nihilism of capitalism to find purpose in its own downfall.

The LI is organised through the work of the seven-man Central Committee. The Central Committee consists of Peter Allen, Paul Burton, Thomas Hammond, Chris Marshall, Oliver Sargeant, Dan Smith and Professor Jonny Stevens (MA, PhD, DSc, FFA, FRSE - University of Life).

Ladma film is a loose, often experimental, narrative. "Riffing" or improvisation is a central tenet of the discipline. Ladma concentrates on marginalised themes of contemporary society namely: paraplegia, self-alienation, homo-eroticism, religion, and anti-politics. This accounts for its subterranean development and niche appeal.

Critics of Ladamism frequently assert that their ideas are not in fact complex and difficult to understand, but are at best simple ideas expressed in a deliberately obfuscating manner, and at worse actually nonsensical. For example, the neo-Marxist Charles Fist contends that "the Ladma medium simply serves to cyclically subvert its own questionable existence".

Fist was condemned by the LI Central Committee as a "cancerous cyst" in 2005.