In Fading Light (1990)

When Amber film and photography collective decided to work in North Shields, the group bought a pub. When it wanted to make a film about the town's fishing industry, it bought the Sally, a 63 foot anchor seine netter. Actors coming for auditions found themselves at sea for days, gutting fish. When the story required a storm sequence, cast, crew and fishermen set sail, into the teeth of a force 9 gale, tripods anchored to the deck. Writer Tom Hadaway had a lifetime's experience on the fish quay. Filmmakers and actors brought a commitment to authenticity that was almost heroic. In Fading Light captures the Shields fishing industry on the edge of its decline, a beautifully shot film about work and community. The film centres on the upheaval caused in a traditional fishing community by the unexpected arrival of a young woman. A tale of epic proportions, life and death, emotional conflict, told with a documentary realism that denies melodrama. Tom Hadaway's tragic/comic dialogue, the stunning visual quality (it took months to overcome the problems of filming at sea, something that has very rarely if ever been attempted in a drama of this scale), and the veracity of the performances combine, not just to tell a moving story, but to give the audience experience of a way of life.