In 1972, Clarke was a signatory to a campaign of Ms. magazine, "We Have Had Abortions", which called for an end to "archaic laws" limiting reproductive freedom; the participants encouraged women to share their stories and take action.

[7] Clarke studied filmmaking with Hans Richter at the City College of New York after making In Paris Parks (1954).

A Scary Time (1960), showing poverty and disease among children in Third World nations, was produced by UNICEF in consultation with Thorold Dickinson.

And secondly, I have developed this personality, this way of being...I happen to have chosen a field where I have to be out there, to constantly connect, to be in charge of vast amounts of money, equipment and people.

Clarke intended the film to be used as a test case in a successful fight to abolish New York State's censorship rules.

The original play by Jack Gelber had been condemned by mainstream critics during its performances off-Broadway, but had still drawn an audience that included "Leonard Bernstein, Anita Loos, Salvador Dalí and Lillian Hellman, who likened it to 'a fine time at the circus'".

American Beat generation celebrities who were in Europe at the time traveled to Cannes to show support for Clarke's film.

Screenings of The Connection in New York State were subsequently banned following complaints alleging indecency, based on a shot that included a pornographic magazine and a word deemed obscene.

Another attempt was made to publicly screen the film a year later, only for the police to intervene, as the filmmakers still did not have a license from the State's board of censors.

Following her divorce from Bert Clarke, she began a relationship with Lee that lasted until his death in 1986 from AIDS, which he had contracted from his use of a dirty hypodermic needle.

[1][14] In 1961, Clarke signed the manifesto "Statement for a New American Cinema",[15] and in 1962, she co-founded The Film-Makers' Cooperative in New York with Jonas Mekas.

Based on a novel by Warren Miller, Clarke's feature, The Cool World (1964), followed the life of a young man who rose to be the leader of a juvenile gang.

[1] The first movie to dramatize a story on black street gangs without relying upon Hollywood-style moralizing, it was shot on location in Harlem and produced by Frederick Wiseman.

[12] Clarke directed a feature-length interview with a gay black male prostitute, Portrait of Jason (1967) which was selected for the New York Film Festival.

[1] Edited from 12 hours of interview footage, the film was described by Lauren Rabinovitz as an exploration of one "person's character while it simultaneously addresses the range and limitations of cinema-verité style".

With the exception of non-mainstream publications, reviewers were generally negative focusing on Clarke's supposed "morbid viewpoint and the lack of production polish".

The troupe worked in and around the Hotel Chelsea on West 23rd St in New York City, often setting up multiple cameras and monitors on the roof or in the stairwell.

The Chelsea guest participants included Viva, Arthur C. Clarke (no relation), Severn Darden, and Agnès Varda.

[1] In addition to directing her own films, Clarke played an independent filmmaker in the cinéma vérité-style comedy Lions Love (1969) by Agnès Varda.

Clarke also appears briefly in the documentary He Stands in a Desert Counting the Seconds of His Life (1986) by Jonas Mekas.

It was not her only film subject to bans by New York State censors, or distribution challenges posed by the lack of infrastructure for independent filmmakers.

[20] Thomas Cohen, in a 2012 book discussing her career, described her features as "films considered essential works of New American Cinema".