T Dan Smith (1987)
85 mins
An experimental docu-thriller examining the scandal of how the one-time Newcastle Council Leader, aka The Mouth of the Tyne, was sentenced to six years imprisonment in 1974 on corruption charges. A story of leftwing group of ex-war resisters who took control of the city council in 1960, the socialist and civic ambitions and the betrayals, claims of MI5 involvement, of ministerial cover-ups and the unseen role of the Privy Council. With Smith appearing as himself and filmmakers Murray Martin and Steve Trafford posing as journalists, the film interrogates the interviews and archive footage, as a scandal unfolds on the streets around them…
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Six to Midnight (1974)
25 mins
A day in the life of Newcastle upon Tyne's Grainger Market, originally made for and rejected by Newcastle City Council who were less than keen on scenes of meat being unloaded on the pavement and the preponderance of ‘To Let’ signs in the city centre. A fascinating, beautiful portrait of the city at a time of immense change.
Quayside (1979)
16 mins
A documentary short on late 70s Newcastle, then under threat of redevelopment, where Amber was based.
Part of a season on Amber Film Collective’s documentaries
Showing as part of this season: Early Shorts (1969-1974), Byker (1983) + Today I’m With You (2010), T Dan Smith (1987) + Shorts, From Marks & Spencer to Marx and Engels (1988) + From Us to Me (2016), Writing in the Sand (1991) + Shorts
Presented by Wavelength
F: facebook.com/wavelengthdocs
T: @wavelengthdocs
dir. Amber
year: 1974-1987
country: UK
total run-time: 126 minutes
Doors 2pm
Film 2.30pm
£6.00/Concessions (Pay What You Can)
“Alongside Ken Loach, Amber are the last great (working) class warriors of British film... They make movies in the north-east about a way of life that is rapidly disappearing, and one that is rarely represented on screen: sea coalers, fishermen, harness racers are just a few of the subjects they have tackled over the past 30 years. But there is more to their movies than history. They are funny and moving, political and challenging, and as real as it gets.”
“Part-art cinema, part-documentary, Amber’s evolving humanist aesthetic has produced a body of work that in its integrity, honesty and commitment, remains one of the great unsung achievements of British cinema.”
“The often strikingly unreconstructed and old-school north-east working-class culture is one which Amber’s films and photography has documented, chronicled, celebrated and dramatised over the past 47 years”
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