It’s the Pits (1995)

Amber Films

A video documentary made with youth workers and young people, looking at the lives of young people in East Durham and the lack of facilities for them after the closure of the area’s last coal mines.

Amber was invited by youth workers to make the video, a key figure among them being Barry Gough, who went on to help in the making of The Scar (1997) and Like Father (2001). For one of Side Gallery’s Coalfield Stories exhibitions, he and fellow Seaham single parent father Paul Heron, collaborated with photographer Peter Fryer and writer Graeme Rigby on the development of Fathers (2001). He and his son Callum then took on lead roles in the film Shooting Magpies (2005), which completed Amber’s coalfield trilogy. Barry’s daughter Aimee helped photographer Karen Robinson develop her Coalfield Stories project All Dressed Up (2005).

Amber Films, 32 mins, 1995

Show More

Watch the trailer

attribution-noncommercial-noderivs