In Fading Light : The Films of the Amber Collective

269 Pages·3.201 MB·English

by  James Leggott

In Fading Light

I F L
n adIng Ight
The Films of the Amber Collective
James Leggott
berghahn
N E W Y O R K • O X F O R D
www.berghahnbooks.com
First published in 2020 by
Berghahn Books
www.berghahnbooks.com
© 2020 James Leggott
All rights reserved. Except for the quotation of short passages
for the purposes of criticism and review, no part of this book
may be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or
mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information
storage and retrieval system now known or to be invented,
without written permission of the publisher.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Leggott, James, author.  
Title: In fading light : the films of the Amber Collective / James Leggott.  
Description: New York : Berghahn, 2020. | Includes bibliographical
   references, filmography, and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2020002402 (print) | LCCN 2020002403 (ebook) | ISBN
   9781789206500 (hardback) | ISBN 9781789206517 (ebook) 
Subjects: LCSH: Amber Film & Photography Collective. | Documentary
   films--Great Britain--History and criticism. | Motion picture
   studios--Great Britain--History.
Classification: LCC PN1995.9.D6 L386 2020  (print) | LCC PN1995.9.D6 
   (ebook) | DDC 070.1/8--dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020002402
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020002403
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN 978-1-78920-650-0 hardback
ISBN 978-1-78920-651-7 ebook
Tradition is not the worship of ashes, but the preservation of fire.
—Gustav Mahler

C
ontents
List of Illustrations viii
Acknowledgements ix
Introduction 1
Chapter 1. Histories of Amber 7
Chapter 2. Salvaging the Past, 1968 to 1980 31
Chapter 3. Can’t Beat It Alone: Current Affairs and Investigations,
1982 to 1988 66
Chapter 4. The Sirkka-Liisa Konttinen Films, 1983 to 1994 96
Chapter 5. Dream On: Drama Features, 1981 to 1991 127
Chapter 6. From the Tyne to the Coalfields: Feature Films, 1995 to
2005 170
Chapter 7. Still Here: Amber in the Twenty-First Century 206
Conclusion. Amber at Fifty 235
Select Bibliography 239
Amber Filmography 248
Index 253
I
LLustratIons
1.1 Signing Amber’s partnership agreement, 1974, Graham Denman,
Graham Smith, Peter Roberts, Lorna Powell, Murray Martin and
Sirkka-Liisa Konttinen. 8
1.2 Filming In Fading Light in 1989. 11
2.1 Still from Maybe (1969). 37
2.2 Launching of World Unicorn, Wallsend, 1973. 39
2.3 The brick-makers on their last day of work during the shoot of
Last Shift (1976). 47
3.1 Murray Martin, T Dan Smith and Steve Trafford during the
making of T Dan Smith (1987). 82
3.2 Peter Roberts and Ellin Hare filming From Marks & Spencer to
Marx and Engels, Rostock, 1987. 91
4.1 Girl on a Spacehopper, Byker, 1971. 109
4.2 Whitley Bay, Aug ’80. 113
4.3 Photograph from My Finnish Routes (Sirkka-Liisa Konttinen,
1990–99). 119
5.1 Still from The Filleting Machine (1981). 130
5.2 Press image for Seacoal (1985). 139
5.3 Still from In Fading Light (1989). 149
6.1 Still from Eden Valley (1995). 177
6.2 Still from The Scar (1997). 181
6.3 Press image for Like Father (2000). 193
6.4 Still from Shooting Magpies (2005). 195
7.1 Murray Martin and Bolex Camera, 1970s. 210
7.2 Gnana with her daughter Kavi, from Sri Lanka, 2003. 216
7.3 Still from From Us to Me (2016). 220
8.1 Amber, 2014. Left to right: Bryan Dixon, Graeme Rigby, Sirkka-
Liisa Konttinen, Peter Roberts, Kerry Lowes, Ellin Hare, Annie
Robson, Peter Scott. 237
a
CknowLedgements
This book’s gestation has been long, stretching back to the time of my Ph.D.
studies, when I first undertook a marathon viewing of Amber’s films on their
premises and was encouraged deeper into their archives by the late Murray
Martin. I have a recollection of an initial conversation where he held onto
an electric drill the entire time, but (as he was wont to say) memory is an
unreliable tool.
My first acknowledgement is to the Arts and Humanities Research
Council, who funded my research for what would become In Fading Light
(AH/H008217/1). I have also received research support from Northumbria
University.
Chapter Six contains material that was first published in Hochscherf,
T. and J. Leggott. 2008. ‘From Marks and Spencer to Marx and Engels:
A Transnational DEFA and Amber Film Documentary Project across the
Iron Curtain’, Studies in Documentary Film 2(2): 123–35. It is reprinted
by permission of Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group,
www.tandfonline.com.
The project to write about Amber began in earnest and initially in col-
laboration with Tobias Hochscherf, whom I must thank for his insights and
enthusiasm.
Countless conversations and encouragements have fed into the develop-
ment of this book: I am sorry that they are too many and various to itemise
here. I would particularly like to thank the following for their practical
assistance: Rupert Ashmore, Jamie Chambers, John Couzin, Kitty Fitzgerald,
Richard Grassick, Ian Greaves, Pauline Hadaway, Stafford Linsley, Darren
Newbury and Paul O’Reilly. Colleagues, past and present, at Northumbria
University and elsewhere, have suffered a few despondent outpourings about
albatrosses and the like, for which I apologize profusely. It pains me that Peter
Hutchings is not around to toast completion.
I am extremely grateful to members of the Amber collective (Ellin Hare,
Sirkka-Liisa Konttinen, Murray Martin, Graeme Rigby, Peter Roberts), who
have not only inspired the book but granted interviews, provided resources,