A reel sense of place
The tides of North Shields carry eight centuries of stories. Tyneside Cinema steps beyond its screens for a collaborative celebration of the Fish Quay and its people.
Finishing touches are being put to an evening celebrating the stories, sounds and hidden histories of North Shields.
On Friday October 24, the town’s Salt Market Social will host From Our Streets to Our Seas: Tales of Heritage, Memory and Myth - a special event featuring film, live music and storytelling inspired by the people and places that define the historic Fish Quay.
Produced by Tyneside Cinema and Pinwheel as part of the town’s NS800 celebrations (a year of commemorative activity marking the town’s 800th anniversary), the event marks the culmination of a year-long project that set out to explore North East culture through the eyes of its communities.
At the heart of the evening is Tides, a short film by Sam and Anthony Gannie which drifts through the past, present and future of North Shields.
Five newly commissioned animated shorts by Sheryl Jenkins - with sound by composing duo Staithe - which reimagine local stories gathered from the Fish Quay community will be screened while live sets from Staithe, Olly Armstrong and others promise original music written in response to the harbour and its people.
Olly will also lead audiences on a winding trail of tales gathered during the project. And if that wasn’t enough, a gallery of images curated from the vast archive of Newcastle film and photography collective, AmberSide will bring a visual thread linking generations of North Shields storytellers.
“This is a celebration of North Shields in all its richness – its heritage, its people, its stories and its myths,” says Pinwheel director Katy Fuller. “Working with local communities has been at the heart of the process, and we’re thrilled to share the films, music and photography they’ve inspired.”
For Tyneside Cinema, From Our Streets to Our Seas represents a new chapter - part of a wider mission to reconnect with communities across the North East and to re-establish film as a way of bringing people together.
“When I first started, a lot of feedback we got was that the Tyneside had become very concentrated on itself,” says chief executive Nic Greenan.
“We’d lost our Arts Council funding and the participation work disappeared overnight. This was the start of a commitment to getting outside the building again, building relationships, and re-establishing Tyneside as a cultural organisation that’s part of the wider community, not just a venue.”
When it was launched, the initiative invited artists and residents to collaborate on new work exploring heritage, belonging and storytelling.
Pinwheel came on board as delivery partner after an open tender process, helping to shape the creative commissions and build connections with community groups.
“It’s been about doing something meaningful rather than big numbers,” Nic explains. “We didn’t want to helicopter in with a flashy project. It’s been about a handful of good relationships that we can build on - about understanding what Tyneside Cinema means to people, and what it could mean if we do things differently.”
Nic says the commissioned works that emerged are strikingly varied. Some draw on oral storytelling traditions, others on visual art or music, but each one has been co-created with the people whose experiences shaped it.
“We had filmmakers, visual artists and musicians all working in different ways with the communities we’d built relationships with,” says Nic. “The outcomes are completely distinct - stylistically they couldn’t be more different - but they share that authenticity that comes from collaboration. They’re beautiful pieces, and some are really emotional too.”
Filmmaker Anthony Gannie, who co-directed Tides with his brother Sam, describes the experience as “an incredible journey”.
“The Fish Quay is full of voices and memories that deserve to be heard,” he says. “This project is about preserving those stories and sharing them with new audiences in a way that feels alive and rooted in the community.”
The story behind From Our Streets to Our Seas stretches far beyond the river. Earlier this year, another strand of the project unfolded at the West End Women and Girls Centre in Elswick, where artist and creative facilitator Mim Robson worked with women to explore storytelling through food and art.
Across spring and summer, the group came together to cook, garden and create prints using techniques such as cyanotype, eco-printing and monoprinting. Their work led to a printed recipe book celebrating the diverse cultures and memories of the women involved.
“What came out of that collaboration was extraordinary,” says Nic. “The women told their stories through recipes - dishes passed from generation to generation. It wasn’t about film, but about how people share who they are. The book is beautiful, and it represents another way of telling stories that matter.”
Copies of the recipe book will be on display at the Fish Quay event, and Tyneside Cinema will later host an exhibition inspired by the project in its gallery space.
That sense of continuity is important to Nic, who’s keen to ensure that From Our Streets to Our Seas doesn’t end with a single night of screenings. “What I’m always conscious of with funded projects is what happens afterwards,” she says.
“It’s not about the word ‘legacy’, but about sustaining relationships - making sure people feel that Tyneside is a home for them, that they can influence what we do and how we do it.”
Plans are already in motion for a wider exhibition at the cinema later this year, featuring the films, animations and photography from the From Our Streets to Our Seas project. The growing partnership with AmberSide, meanwhile, is likely to continue well into the future, with both organisations exploring new ways to collaborate ahead of Tyneside’s 90th anniversary in 2027.
Supported by Historic England, the North East Combined Authority, the BFI and the Community Foundation, From Our Streets to Our Seas takes place at the Salt Market Social on Friday, October 24 from 6.30pm and will include a Q&A with a panel of special guests. Tickets are free, but booking is a must, via eventbrite.co.uk