Founded in 1968, the Amber Collective have been documenting working-class experience in Newcastle and wider Tyneside for over five decades. Comprising documentary film, fiction film, photography and more, Amber’s work represents one of the single greatest achievements of British cinema – a sustained engagement and commitment to marginalised communities that is full of integrity, poetry and provocation.
Whilst Amber’s early filmmaking drew on the work of the British Documentary movement, over the decades the collective have explored social realist drama, dream-like magical realism, self-reflexive approaches to documentary and more experimental forms.
This masterclass – featuring three core members of the collective, Ellin Hare, Sirkka-Liisa Kontinnen and Peter Roberts will explore Amber’s work, through changing political and cultural climates in the UK, and in particular the fruitful ‘interface between documentary and fiction’ in which much of the Collective’s work takes place.