AMBER FILM & PHOTOGRAPHY COLLECTIVE

Amber Films Side Gallery Side Cinema Amber Archive Amber-Online SideTV

2010 - 2011

In 2010/11 Amber completed the documentary Today Im With You (2010, 53 mins), which follows photographer/ Amber member Sirkka-Liisa Konttinen as she creates Byker Revisited (exhibition and book, 2009). Her original book and exhibition and Ambers film Byker (1983) had documented the community of terraced streets she had lived in when Amber first came to the North East in 1969 - streets that were demolished at the end of the 70s to make way for Ralph Erskines visionary Byker Wall Estate. The new film charts a personal journey through the contemporary communities of the estate, from working class individuals families she had documented in the original work to the asylum seekers housed as part of the UK governments refugee dispersal policy. Today Im With You was broadcast on BBC4 in September 2010.

AMBER FILMS

As part of research for a new feature film, begun in 2009, Amber completed We Are All Survivors (2011, 49 mins), a documentary about Crossings, a host community/asylum seeker/refugee community music project. The film has been screened at several community events, helping to raise the profile of and helping to raise funds for Crossings. It has also been shown on SideTV. Drawing on Amber advice, equipment and support, winner of Ambers 2009 Murray Martin Award, young filmmaker Florrie Darling completed The Lost Banner (2011), exploring her generations political responses following the Iraq War. Six episodes of SideTVs The Worlds Kitchen were made, exploring Sudanese, Iraqi and Bosnian food and culture. Songs from the Secret Garden, a collaboration with The Sage Gateshead, saw two films completed, the second both filmed and initially shown during the Sages Americana Festival, featuring artists from the weekend (Rosanne Cash, Howe Gelb, The Handsome Family and others). The performances were filmed in Ambers beautiful garden, at the top of Battery Stairs. The two films were screened on SideTV. A documentary, Weegee the Famous (2010, 27 mins) was completed about the New York photographer, drawing on photographs and interviews in the Amber archive. It was webcast on SideTV. In Autumn 2010, Amber secured development funding from the UK Film Council and Channel 4 for a new feature film, St Georges Day (working title), which draws on both Byker Revisited/Today Im With You and We Are All Survivors. Amber brought together a group of collaborators from the two documentaries, developing the new films narrative out of the stories they began sharing and out of the scenes which were improvised with them.
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From the top: Today Im With You, We Are All Survivors, The Lost Banner, an improvisation in the development of St Georges Day

SIDE GALLERY

At the beginning of 2010/11 Side Gallery was exhibiting Tim Hetheringtons Long Story Bit by Bit: Liberia Retold. Just after the year ended, Tims death in Misrata, covering the Libyan uprising, was reported. The gallery had first shown his work in 2000 in a show about the photo agency Panos. He had come up then and given an inspiring talk. His 2010 talks in the gallery and the cinema were equally inspiring. Tim was a major force in taking the art of documentary forward and it was a privilege to have worked with him. In May 2010, the gallery premiered George Georgious Fault Lines: Turkey East/West, which in 2011 featured as one of six exhibitions celebrated at New Yorks Museum of Modern Art in their New Photography. George, who first exhibited at the gallery in 2002 with Between the Lines, came to give an opening talk. The summer saw Stateside: American Documentary from the Side Photographic Collection, with connected exhibitions at Side Gallery and The Sage Gateshead. The two shows featured work by Weegee, Russell Lee, Eugene Richards, James Perry Walker, Walker Evans and many others. Another premiere, opening in September, Simon Wheatleys Dont Call Me Urban: The Time of Grime explored the complex interactions between gang culture and music in South London. As well as hosting Simons gallery talk, Side also hosted the launch of Simons book of the work, published by Northumbria Press. Zed Nelsons Love Me, running from November to January, presented a powerful and timely critique of the hegemony of Western ideals of beauty, from pageants to plastic surgery. Zed also gave a gallery talk. The opening of Henryk Ross Lodz Ghetto Album at the end of January was timed to coincide with Holocaust Memorial Day. Ross had been employed as a photographer by the Ghetto authorities, servicing the requirements of the Nazi bureaucracy, but had also, at some risk, documented the ghetto - the privations, social life, children at play and the privileges of the ghetto elite. It was a rich and deeply challenging exhibition. After such a successful year, constantly delivering increased audiences and new audiences, it was disappointing in March 2011 to discover that Side Gallery had not been included in the Arts Councils National Portfolio. The announcement of the end to revenue funding in 2012 elicited a major public outcry. The Arts Council assured Amber of their commitment to supporting the gallery through other funding strands and have now begun to do this.
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From the top: Long Story Bit by Bit, Fault Lines, Dont Call Me Urban, Lodz Ghetton Album

10 film seasons were screened. Women Directors: The UK Cut saw Carine Adlers Under the Skin (1997), Sally Potters Yes (2005), Andrea Arnolds Red Road (2006), Lisa Gornicks Tick Tock Lullaby (2007) and Kim Longinottos Rough Aunties (2009). French Romance featured Marcel Carns Le Quai des Brumes (1938) and Les Enfants du Paradis (1945), Francois Truffauts Le Dernier Metro (1980) and Leo Carax Les Amants du Pont Neuf (1991). Side worked with Star & Shadow Cinema on a celebration of Luis Bunuel: they programmed four of his French works, Side programmed five of his Spanish/Mexican films - LAge dOr (1930), Las Hurdes (1933), Los Olvidados (1950), The Criminal Life of Archibaldo de la Cruz (1955) and Viridiana (1961). This was followed by the music-themed American Dreams: Rafaelsons Five Easy Pieces (1970), Altmans Nashville (1975), Wenders Paris, Texas (1984) and Jarmuschs Down by Law (1986). In partnership with Newcastle University, an Algerian Season featured Pontecorvos The Battle of Algiers (1966), Allouaches Bab El Oued City (1994), Djahnines Lettre Ma Soeur (2006) and Hakkars La Maison Jaune (2006). Cans Not Cannes featured rarities from the archive: 6 to Midnight (Amber, 1974), John Smith (Steele-Perkins & Spencer, 1970), Ship Hotel - Tyne Main (Trevelyan, 1967), Basil Bunting (Bell, 1982), Estuary (Byrne/Schindler/Eadington, 1974), No Grass Under My Feet (Byrne, 1975), Riverwork (Byrne, 1975) and End of the Pier (Eadington, 1986) A season of films by the great Powell & Pressburger featured of A Canterbury Tale (1944), I Know Where Im Going (1945) and Black Narcissus (1947). Sadly, a flood prevented the screening of A Matter of Life and Death (1948). Racism on Film featured Fassbinders Fear Eats the Soul (1974), Oves Pressure (1975), Lees Do the Right Thing (1989) and Loachs Ae Fond Kiss (2004). A French 90s season included Philiberts Every Little Thing (1997), Chabrols Betty (1992), Denis Beau Travail and Guedigians The Town is Quiet (2000). The year finished with a Fellini season: I Vitelloni (1953), La Strada (1954), La Dolce Vita (1960) and 8 (1963). There were 9 Filmmakers Talking events. There were screening collaborations with Press Play Festival, Sheffield DocFest and The Sage Gateshead, which saw a range of other specialist cinema events. August 2010 saw Amber involved in Side Cinema refurbishment and technical improvement, supported by two Martin Stephenson benefit gigs, seat sponsorship and volunteering.
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SIDE CINEMA

From the top: Pressure, Beau Travail, La Strada, Le Quai des Brumes, Five Easy Pieces, Viridiana

AMBER ARCHIVE
At Ambers heart is a living archive: the films and the photographic bodies of work produced, commissioned and collected since 1968, providing a context for the generation of new documentations of north eastern communities, lives and landscapes. Three more bodies of photographic work were deposited in the archive: Derek Smiths The Lost Communities of Industrial Teesside from the early 1970s, more recent Teesside photographer Bob Mitchells Portraits and Newsha Tavakolians Sisters in Chanel & Chador, exploring womens lives in Iran, which was shown at Side Gallery in January 2009. The completed Amber documentary Today Im With You was added to the catalogue of major Amber works, following broadcast on BBC4. The archive will also hold the extensive digital video interviews with residents of the Byker Wall Estate, which contributed to and informed the film and Sirkka-Liisa Konttinen Byker Revisited work. A major project throughout 2010/11 involved the cataloguing of the film and video archive and the development of digital masters for a number of Ambers film works. This work was funded by the Department of Culture, Museums & Sports, through Screen Heritage UK (a partnership between the British Film Institute, Screen Yorkshire and English regional film archives) and Northern Film & Media. The work underpins Ambers plans for developing accessibility to its film collection. In March 2011, Amber was notified that the interconnected narrative of 22 of its films and 10 bodies of work by photographer member Sirkka-Liisa Konttinen (1968 2010) was to be inscribed in the UNESCO Memory of the World register as being of national cultural significance. The offical 2011 launch took place in the summer, fellow inscribees including the 1689 Bill of Rights, Charles Is Death Warrant from 1649, the classic work of the GPO Film Unit and the recently discovered early C20th films of Mitchell & Kenyon. Amber has collaborated with Newcastle Universitys Robert Hollands and John Vail on an ESRC-funded research project into the collectives work as a transformative arts practice. Some days may feel more transformative than others, but the papers and draft chapters have been consistently rewarding. Works from the archive were shown in the North East of England, nationally and internationally. In 2010, Amber began to work on its development plan, which will also see physical access improvements to Side Gallery, radically enhanced digital access to the archive holdings in the gallery space and in Side Cinema as well as improved exhibition spaces.
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From the top: Launch (1973), Sirkka-Liisa Konttinens Byker, In Fading Light (1989), The Pursuit of Happiness (2008), all included in the UNESCO inscription.

Amber-online continued to draw strong audiences, in particular to its 88 online photographic exhibitions, many of which attract international interest as major educational resources. Throughout 2010/11, however, there was a significant growth in the usage of the Side Gallery and Side Cinema pages. During the year Amber-online attracted, on average, 11,000 unique visitors per month. SideTV was launched in 2009 as a way of exploring the territory of direct online film programming that is now opening up with the increasing popularity of web video content and the rapidly developing convergence of television and the internet. Throughout the year Amber maintained a monthly changing programme of 8 SideTV channels, drawing on Ambers film & video archive and the work of others producing work compatible with the identity. SideTV attracted between 1,500 and 2,000 unique visitors per month. Webcasts included: Letters to Katja (1994), Knitting Together (Julie Ballands, 2007), Launch (1973), The Bamboozler (2007), Behind the Vote & Beyond the Vote (1984), Mouth of the Tyne (10 episodes, 2010), Weegee the Famous (2010), The Worlds Kitchen (5 episodes, 2010), The Filleting Machine (1981), Talking About The Filleting Machine (1983), Olavs Wood (Katja Roberts, 2008), Keeping Time (1983), Shields Stories (10 episodes, 1988), In Fading Light (1989), The Making of In Fading Light (2005), Footage (Ken Patterson, 2010), Maybe (1969), The Box (1986), Dream On (1991), Water Bodies (Jennifer Keegan, 2008), The Writing in the Sand (1991), The Making of The Writing in the Sand (1998), Swing Bridge (1977), Tyne Lives (1980), Face Off (Bryan Dixon, 2004), High Row (1973), Jellyfish (1973), Side Talks: Ken Loach (2009), Byker (1983), Girl on a Spacehopper (Katja Roberts, 2009), Quayside (1979), The Scar (1997), Building America in Bethlehem (Anisa George, 2009), Mai (1974), Glassworks (1977), The Homing Instinct (Katja Roberts, 2008), Bowes Line (1975), We Are All Survivors (2011), John Smith (Chris Steele-Perkins & Ray Spencer, 1970), Songs from the Secret Garden (2 films, 2010), The Boarding House (Peter Fryer & David Stafford, 2008). Part of the funding that enabled Amber to set up SideTV came from the Digital Film Archive Fund, which was designed to encourage access to the countrys archive-held screen heritage. 2010/11 saw 34 webcast films and videos from Amber archive, together with 4 new works which drew on archive holdings. 7 works were made specially for SideTV. 14 of the webcasts were made in the last five years.
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AMBER-ONLINE & SIDETV

From the top: John Smith, Songs from the Secret Garden, Shields Stories, The Scar, Weegee the Famous

THE COLLECTIVE

Amber came together as a group of film students in London in 1968, moving to the North East of England the following year. In 1971 the group began to rent the buildings on Newcastles quayside, where it has been based ever since. Threatened with eviction, as the landlord joined the exodus from what was then a rundown area of the city, the collective bought the buildings in 1975 and became a partnership. It opened Side Gallery in 1977 and Side Cinema in 1979. The partnership continued as the legal structure covering all of the groups activity until April 2010, when the collective became a community interest company. The discussion of a restructuring began in 2005, the need for it accentuated when Murray Martin, the groups visionary founder, died in 2007. With some partners retiring and the majority of the collective not in the partnership, there was a need for a new structure that would enable continuity and succession within a context that allowed the egalitarian collective practice out of which Amber has developed and sustained an international recognised body of work for over 40 years. 2010/11 was the first year of Amber Fim & Photography Collective cic. Amber identifies its benefiting communities of interest as: The individuals and communities with whom we work collaboratively to develop the production of film and photography and related projects; The broader public community in the North East of England and elsewhere, who benefit from the visual, audio-visual and other stories that we tell; The community of film and photography practitioners (local, national and international) who are supported by the coherent narrative and vision of Ambers work. Maintaining, protecting, promoting and developing the Amber Archive; Exhibitions, film screenings, operating a gallery and cinema; Film and photographic production, commissioning, collection and distribution; Educational and online activity.

Ambers activities are defined as:

The groups memorandum and articles of association also commit it to continuing its longstanding and successful exploration of the possibilities of an egalitarian collective practice.
From the top: entrance to the alleyway, Side Gallery interior, gallery entrance and stairs, Side Cinema interior 7

Directors Peter Roberts Sirkka-Liisa Konttinen Ellin Hare Graeme Rigby Kerry Lowes Annie Robson Peter Scott Kate Siou Registered Office 5-9 Side Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 3JE Company Registration Number 07218282 Amber Film & Photography Collective cic was incorporated on 9th April 2010 and commenced trading on the same date. Support In 2010/11 Amber was supported by: Arts Council England Baring Foundation British Film Institute Channel 4 Northern Film + Media Screen Yorkshire

PROFIT & LOSS ACCOUNT 9th April 2010 to 31 March 2011 Turnover Cost of sales Administrative expenses Other operating income Operating profit on ordinary activities before taxation Tax on profit on ordinary activities Profit for financial period Fixed Assets Intangible assets Tangible assets Current Assets Debtors Cash at bank Creditors Amounts falling due within one year Net current liabilities Assets less current liabilities Accruals & deferred income Net assets Reserves Profit & loss account 237,894 93,826 _______ 134,697 _______ 8 9,379 0 _______ 9,379 9,371

144,068

In the Amber garden, left to right: Graeme Rigby, Peter Scott, Kerry Lowes, Ellin Hare, Kate Siou, Peter Roberts, Sirkka-Liisa Konttinen, Annie Robson 8

56,000 13,501 ______ 69,501 21,834 9,355 ______ 31,189

35,311 ______ (4,122) 65,379 56,000 ______ 9,379 ______ ______ 9,379 ______ 9,379

TRADING AND PROFIT & LOSS ACCOUNT 9th April 2010 to 31st April 2011 Turnover Amber sales Side Gallery sales Grants Arts Council England Northern Film & Media Cost of Sales Purchases Distribution expenses Exhibition expenses Songs from the Secret Garden Feature film development Today Im With You Archive Post Production Fees (Amber partners) Gross Profit Other Income Bank interest received - net Expenditure Rent Rates & water Insurance Light & heat Wages Telephone Post & stationery Travel Repairs & renewals Sundry expenses Accountancy 8 _______ 14,640 20,664 93,062 62,511 47,017 _______

NOTES Fees & Wages Amber collective members are paid for services to the cic on an egalitarian basis. The three partners in Amber Associates who continue to be members of the collective choose to have their fees paid into the partnership. These are represented under Cost of Sales. Other members of the collective and employees of the cic have their fees and wages paid individually. These are represented under Expenditure. Accounting Policies The financial statements have been prepared under the historical cost convention and in accordance with the Financial Reporting Standard for Smaller Entities (effective April 2008). Turnover represents net sales and services, excluding value added tax. Grants for projects are received and are deferred until expenditure has been incurred. Goodwill, being the amount paid in connection with the acquisition of a business in 2010, is being amortised evenly over its estimated useful life of fifteen years. Tangible fixed assets are calculated: plant and equipment - 20% on reducing balance; computer equipment - 25% on reducing balance. Deferred tax is recognised in respect of all timing differences that have originated but not not reversed at the balance sheet date. Hire purchase and leasing commitments are charged to the profit and loss account on a straight line basis over the period of the lease. Profits Under the terms of the memorandum and articles of association, where Amber Film & Photography Collective cic makes any surplus it will be used for the benefit of the company and the community of interest referred to.

237,894

10,330 16,116 9,701 2,208 545 1,324 6,967 46,635 _______

93,826 ______ 144,068

144,076

21,000 16,780 4,736 4,923 65,048 1,362 2,128 508 3,075 3,722 1,500 _______

126,164 _______ 17,912 699 _______ 17,213

Finance Costs Carried Forward Depreciation Goodwill Plant & machinery Computer equipmewnt Net Profit 4,000 2,044 1,790 _______

Cover photograph from Byker Revisited by Sirkka-Liisa Konttinen

7,834 _______ 9,379