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Exhibition

Title: Launch (1973)

Producer: Amber Films

Exhibits: 1 (view by pages)

The classic shot of the launch of an oil tanker at the bottom of a street has ensured the popularity of this beautiful documentary, opening up on the epic experience of shipbuilding communities. See a video clip

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Launch (1973)

Amber Films (Producer)

Launch clipLaunch clip

10 mins, 16mm
Colour/optical
Documentary
Available as DVD
Read the DVD Times review

Amber’s film of the launch of the World Unicorn has remained a popular entry in the back catalogue. Sometimes criticised by the British left for its romantic lyricism, in Germany it was seen as a political exposé of work conditions in British shipyards. When shown on Channel 4 in 1982, Chris Auty described the film in the Sunday Times as ‘a tone poem on working life with a distinctive combination of loving nostalgia and political protest.’

The gradual emergence of a ship at the end of the street and its sudden subsequent disappearance was part of the annual cycle in Wallsend. To the unsuspecting visitor, the first encounter with a ship in its final stages, the awareness of its scale is breathtaking. A few days before the launch the yard takes on a special atmosphere of anticipation and this film is a response to, and an attempt to capture that atmosphere.

Despite its short length and minuscule budget (£400) the film was very important in the development of Amber. With a commitment to documenting working life in the North East, the scale and visual drama of shipyards were immediately attractive. The budget eased, when Murray Martin arranged to be paid in film stock for some lectures at Newcastle Polytechnic, it nevertheless took a while to complete. Largely unplanned, it was in the main the work of Murray and Peter Roberts, who directed and shot the film jointly, on what was a casual journey round the yard, seeing, reacting, filming, working on and trusting each other’s instinct and eye.

Although inevitably larger projects were to lead to a more disciplined organisation, a common sensibility to imagery and situation remains fundamental to the group, and perhaps is one reason for its relative stability over a long period of time.

AMBER FILMS
Made with financial assistance from Northern Arts.

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