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Sirkka-Liisa Konttinen

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12/09/2010

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Filmmaker Sirkka-Liisa Konttinen takes a photographic journey through Byker Wall Estate.

In the 1960s filmmaker Sirkka-Liisa Konttinen came to Byker in Newcastle upon Tyne. She returned in 2005, and this film follows her as she builds a portrait of the new estate.

During the late 1960s Finnish photographer and filmmaker Sirkka-Liisa Konttinen came to Byker, a working class community in Newcastle upon Tyne. She fell in love with her new home just as it was about to be demolished. Her seminal documentation of the community led to national recognition for her work as a key account of Britain's traditional working class culture at the moment of its destruction. 

In 2005, Sirkka returned. The visionary Byker Wall Estate that replaced the original terraced streets was to have rehoused the community intact, but inevitably didn't. 

This new film follows her as she negotiates a photographic journey through its now multicultural communities - building a portrait of the estate out of her comically chaotic portrait sessions and the arresting photographs, stories and negotiations that flow from them. Through rare film footage we glimpse her as a young woman photographing the old community.

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