We all felt the shockwave at the news of Mark Saunders sudden death. All seemed well with him after a week away in Finland at this years Inura. He returned on Monday but by Friday he was at Kings College Hospital getting emergency treatment, to no avail and he lost out to Septic Cardiogenic Shock on Saturday 5th July. Since then a group of his friends and peers have gathered in support of the family and to save Spectacle, best we can in the circumstances.
A celebration of Mark’s life will be held at SET social in Peckham on October 21st, friends and colleagues all welcome! It’s where we met earlier this year for Exploding Cinema and a perfect space for us all to gather, watch a reel of clips, raise a glass or two and smoke a ready rolled in his loving memory!
Readers of this log will know he and YT have been meeting regularly over at Spectacle production studio in Lavender Hill, to review the resource mountain stacked there. Mark was actively seeking routes for future sustainability and utility of this unique historical video archive. Not only does it describe the social history of documentary film making in the UK and Europe but the evolution of community video production in practice. It’s a unique collection.
Time is now short to define practical steps toward ensuring viable future access to the collection. The vast catalogue of video tapes, cameras and production documentation have been well annotated so packing them up in order they could be retrieved if needed was made relatively easy. Having said that there are 75 boxes of old media so it’s encouraging to now see empty shelves! Much more still to be done before clearance can be completed and the place closed down, too much rent to pay.
We have have been very fortunate to locate secure meanwhile storage with friends until this time next year. There is space for the whole archive, cameras, tape playback and capture hardware alongside a huge stack of tape and documentation. Longer term plans for how to preserve and promote the archive are in conversation now, please chip in with practical ideas and support! Contact ‘Spectacle after Mark’ sam@spectacle.co.uk.
A huge bulk of the material has already been digitised in an ongoing effort with help from a stream of community media workers in training and mentorship with Mark over so many decades! The many threads of research, review and production in process have been left dangling, yet many will likely be resolved well in time.
