Fire Station to screen movie celebrating Sunderland artist Audrey Amiss

A new movie celebrating the life of an unsung Sunderland artist is coming to the city.

Audrey Amiss attended Sunderland College of Art before earning a scholarship to the Royal Academy of Art in 1954 to study painting.

She was forced to give up her studies after being detained in hospital due to mental health issues, training as a typist rather than returning to college upon her release.

She continued to work throughout her life, however, and amassed a vast collection of work which was only discovered after her death in 2013, at the age of 79.

The work was subsequently donated to London-based museum the Wellcome Collection, where it came to the attention of film-maker Carol Morley, who had been awarded a screenwriting fellowship at the charity.

Looking through the vast collection, Morley found Audrey's passport, with the words Typist, Artist, Pirate. King, written under 'occupation' - and that became the title for her film.

It tells the story of a fictional road trip by Audrey and her psychiatric nurse Sandra from her home in London back to Sunderland in time to secure an open call exhibition slot.

North East actress Monica Dolan plays Audrey, with Kelly Macdonald as Sandra and Gina McKee as Audrey's sister Dorothy.

The movie, which was filmed on location across the city in November 2021, went on general release on Friday.

With Sunderland's Empire Cinema having closed when the chain collapsed in July, it had appeared the film would not be screened in Sunderland, with the Newcastle's Tyneside Cinema the nearest confirmed location.

But now the city's Fire Station arts venue has confirmed that it will be showing Typist Artist Pirate King next month.

The centre will screen the movie at 7.30pm on Tuesday, November 28.

Tickets are £11 (students £5) and available from https://sunderlandculture.org.uk/book/?instanceid=667001