BYKER (United Kingdom, 1983) and BYKER REVISITED (United Kingdom, 2009)
Sirkka-Liisa Konttinen went to Byker, a district in Newcastle which had fallen on hard times with the decline of shipbuilding, for the first time in 1969. For a decade, as a member of the film and photography collective Amber she recorded its people, who faced the changes in their neighbourhood with humour and dignity. Urban renewal proved to be a disaster for its working class culture and sense of community: eighty percent of the original residents would move away. Konttinen returned in 2003. She found a number of old acquaintances, but also recorded the asylum seekers who were being housed in quarters which were difficult to rent out.
