Film Archive
The Catalogue
Amber's documentaries and dramas chart a unique engagement with communities in the north east of England. The archive also holds a rich collection of associated work.
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Category: Amber Films: Unreleased Film & Video.
Wilma Wilcox
Amber 1988
Interview with Weegee's widow Wilma Wilcox, who talks about the photographer. Wilma was herself a member of the Photography League. The work was used in an uncompleted Side Gallery video project in the 1980s and in 'Weegee the Famous', a video put together for a Side Gallery exhibition of the Weegee Portfolio in 2008.
Graciela Iturbide
Amber Films (Side Gallery) 1988
Side Gallery talk and discussion from 1988 by the great Mexican photographerGraciela Iturbide at the opening of her exhibition Juchitan, documenting a matriarchal society in Oaxaca, Mexico. The photographic portraits are often constructed documentary, carrying a sense of magic realism. Graciela speaks in Spanish and is translated by film director Penny Woolcock, then part of Trade Films.
No Pasaran
Amber (Side Gallery) 1987
A Side Gallery project about the exhibition of Spanish Civil War photographs (various photographers).
Northumberland Village Homes
Amber (Current Affairs Unit) 1986
An uncompleted project, filming a reunion at Northumberland Village Homes, which provides residential care for young people. Amber collective member Pat McCarthy had been involved with NVH before coming to Amber.
David Goldblatt
Amber Films (Side Gallery) 1985
Either an interview with the South African photographer David Goldblatt or a talk given by at the opening of his exhibition at Side Gallery in 1985.
Weegee Project
Amber Films (Side Gallery) 1985
Tapes from an unfinished project about the New York photographer Weegee (Arthur Fellig). These are mute tapes filming still photographs held in the Amber archive. It was planned to use the film interview with Wilma Wilcox (Weegee's widow) in the project (AF/WWI) and to interview others.
ACTT Interviews
Amber Films 1985
These were interviews with officials/members of the trade union ACTT. Amber was strongly involved with the union in the development of the Workshop Agreement, which opened up the possibilities of unionised independent film workshops, allowing cross-grade working and an egalitarian wage structure.
John Davies Project
Amber / Side Gallery 1984
A Side Gallery video project developed around John Davies' Durham Coalfield exhibition which had been commissioned by the Gallery in 1983 as part of its engagement with the issues that were to lead to the Miners's Strike the following year. John Davies' landscapes documented the working sites of the coalfield and the exhibition was toured extensively during the strike, along with Bruce Rae's Easington: A Mining Village. The video project was developed during the strike. It got to a 30 minute fine cut, but was abandoned.
Miners' Weekend School & other related, 1984
Amber Films (Current Affairs Unit) 1984
20 U-matic tapes. Amber's Current Affairs Unit had videoed the NUM weekend school at Redhills in Durham in 1983, including the contributions from Arthur Scargill, Peter Heathfield, Kim Howells and Huw Beynon. This material was used in News From Durham/Where Are We Going? (AV/NFD & AV/WAW). The Current Affairs Unit went back the following year, during the Miners' Strike and videoed the presentations, speeches and discussions at that weekend school. It includes a presentation by Kim Howells, critical of strike tactics and by a solicitor describing the abuses of process by police. The footage was never used. There is also a tape from the Miners' Rally of 1984 (Gala's are not held in strike years) with part of Dennis Skinner's speech, Arthur Scargill's speech and an interview with a Cortonwood striker.