Vintage films of life at the coast released

ARCHIVED FOOTAGE IS DIGITISED FOR ONLINE COLLECTION

Reporter A TOTAL of 25 newly-digitised archive films portraying life on the coast in the North East over the last century have now been released for viewing.

They are among the British Film Institute’s Britain on Film: Coast and Sea collection, an online compilation of films ranging from 1899 to 2000, from the BFI National Archive and the UK’s national and regional film and TV archives including the North East Film Archive.

Coast and sea highlights from the North East include: Holiday: Whitley Bay (1935), Bring ‘Em Back Alive (Seahouses 1957), “Scooter Weekend” (Whitley Bay / Monkseaton 1957), Outing to Warkworth (Northumberland 1933) and Costa del Coal (Seaham, County Durham 1971).

The project will also involve nearly 200 archive film screenings at coastal locations around the UK.

There will be events at Seahouses, Northumberland and North and South Shields as part of Moving North: Coastal, a new summer touring programme of tailor-made film screenings, exhibitions, and short film compilations revealing the variety of archive footage from the vaults of the North East Film Archives.

A BFI spokesperson said: “From holidaymakers enjoying all the seaside has to offer, and coastal towns changed beyond recognition, to the mixed fortunes of fishermen and the lasting impact of industry, tourism and development on our fragile environment, Coast and Sea paints a diverse portrait of our island nation.

“The collection highlights activities and traditions in the North East that still survive today, or have made an unexpected resurgence, as well as looking at those customs, skills and trades that have dwindled or disappeared over the last century.”

Coast and Sea represents all types of film, from news and actuality footage to documentaries, promotional travelogues and educational shorts, intimacy of amateur home movies, as well as fictional subjects an images, from the early days of film.

In the North East this ranges from Schoolchildren’s Cinema Outing: Newbiggin-by-the-Sea (1913) to dramas made towards the end of the last century at Seahouses (1991).

Graham Relton, archive manager at the North East Film Archive, said: “At the archive we have millions of feet of film, moving images that now reveal life in our region over the past one hundred years and it is an absolute delight to be working on our coastal collections – a wealth of footage which is so rich and varied, just as our coastline is.

“From the natural estuaries linking land and sea on which huge ports and industries have been built, to inlets and coves with communities where fishing has been the mainstay of families for generations, the expanses of beaches and cliffs that remain the kingdom of birds and wildlife, to the growth of the Victorian seaside resorts, a century of life on the coast has been captured on film, to be screened and shared with audiences over the coming months.”

Whitley Bay is depicted over the decades in films like Whitley Bay (1926) then during a 1930s Race Week in Holiday: Whitley Bay (1935).

Kodachrome cinematography captures a bygone era featuring car-