Seacoal (1985)
Amber Films
Film and Video
Amber's first feature drama, blending fiction with documentary realism to portray the seacoaling community on Lynemouth Beach, Northumberland.
Amberside Collection
The AmberSide Collection is a vast body of documentary photography and film dedicated to preserving the working-class experience. Featuring over 20,000 photographs and 100 films, it captures social and industrial life in the North East of England and beyond, with contributions from both local and internationally renowned photographers and filmmakers.
Founded in 1968 by Murray Martin, the Amber Film & Photography Collective set out to create a lasting record of working-class culture. The collection includes works documenting key aspects of everyday life, social struggles, and industrial change. It also features historic projects such as The Building of the Tyne Bridge and the photography of Jimmy Forsyth.
Side’s values are rooted in a concern for working-class, marginalised, or threatened lives and landscapes, both in the UK and abroad. Housed at Side and safeguarded by the AmberSide Trust, the collection remains a vital cultural resource, ensuring that the social history of the North East and wider working-class communities is preserved for future generations.
Seacoalers
Mik Critchlow
Photographic
Photographed between 1981 and 1983, Seacoalers documents life on Lynemouth Beach, where Mik Critchlow gained rare access to a tight-knit community harvesting coal from the shore.
Shields Stories (1988)
Amber Current Affairs Unit
Film and Video
A ten-part series of short drama films made during Amber’s North Shields residency, Shields Stories explores local lives shaped by economic cuts, social change and resilience.
Shipbuilding on the Tyne
Bruce Rae
Photographic
An extensive documentation of the shipbuilding industry along the River Tyne, taken at a time when this industry was threatened in the first wave of Conservative government deindustrialisation.
Shooting Magpies (2005)
Amber Films
Film and Video
Shot on digital video, the final feature drama in the Coalfield Trilogy, Shooting Magpies looks at the impact of heroin addiction on a community grappling with the loss of its industrial identity.
Shots of the Tyne (1980s)
Amber Films
Film and Video
Unfinished Projects
A selection of rushes from an unidentified film project on the river Tyne in the 1980s.
Six to Midnight (1974)
Amber Films
Film and Video
A day in the life of Newcastle upon Tyne, with the Grainger Market at its heart. Commissioned by Newcastle City Council to showcase activity in the city during the 1970s.
Smith's Dock, North Shields
Peter Fryer
Photographic
Photographs of Smith’s Dock, North Shields, taken in 1990/91, documenting a threatened shipyard and its remaining workforce, commissioned as part of Amber’s five-year residency in the town.
Somewhere Called Home
Steve Conlan
Photographic
A 1985 to 1986 photographic exploration of homelessness and traveller communities in Liverpool, rejecting stereotypes in favour of a more honest and humanising perspective.
Visual Culture
Slide sets of original photography & copied imagery, an extraordinary library originally developed in the 1970s & 80s for higher education: a rich and surprising celebration of C19th & C20th iconography.
Licensing & Usage Requests
Photographic exhibitions, videos, clips, trailers and each month's featured film are free. For personal use Amber's feature dramas, feature documentaries and film shorts are available as pay per view. See details of our Educational Screening Licence or contact us.