Amber Online

Like Father portrays a family in crisis, focusing on the dislocations of grandfather, father and son. Pigeon man Arthur Elliott, a seventy-year-old whose working life in the pit gave him a strong sense of identity and pride, is losing his allotment to the local authority’s coastal redevelopment scheme. Working as a trumpet player, a teacher and a club singer, running an agency for club acts, Joe Elliott, forty-years old, an ex-miner, can just about scrape a living out of his music, but he is losing is wife. Ten year old Michael Elliott, living with the pit village folklore and the wreckage of the coal industry is left to grapple with his own realities. Each of the three generations is struggling to come to terms with the past and find the ties that bind them.

The three separate, but essentially integrated worlds unfold against the rich and extraordinary backdrop of East Durham landscapes and locations.

Development of the film began in 1998, its dramatic content originating from actual lives and the unfolding of real events. Incorporating documentary situations, the film features strong performances from both professional and non-professional actors alike. Strongly committed to nurturing latent natural talent, Amber took the bold step of casting local people with no previous acting experience in each of the three main roles:

Ned Kelly as Arthur; Jonathon Dent as Michael; Joe Armstrong as Joe, himself an ex-miner, wrote the brass band suite which features in the film as a commission for his character Joe Elliott.

Conceived, Written, Produced, Directed, Photographed & Edited by the Amber Production Team:
Richard Grassick
Ellin Hare
Sirkka-Lissa Konttinen
Murray Martin
Pat McCarthy
Lorna Powell
Peter Roberts

Featuring
Joe Armstrong
Ned Kelly
Jonathon Dent
Anna Gascoigne

2000
Running time
94 mins .
Colour Optical
Feature available in :
35mm
V.H.S.

Awards

Golden Sun, Best Feature Film, International Environmental Film Festival, Girona, Spain, 2002