East Coast (1982)

• 70%
• 1982
• Martin Sercombe

East Coast responds to the textures, forms and elemental light play observed along a stretch of coastline in Happisburgh, Norfolk. It was first screened on BBC 2 television in the UK, where it was likened to the work of visionary film maker Pat O'Neil and his innovative multilayering of images using optical printing. This film creates similar effects by exposing each roll of film up to five times, using a Bolex 16mm camera. The film opens at Wells Next the Sea, and observes beach life in the gaps between the long row of beach huts. A fast film stock adds an intense painterly grain to the scene. The movement of waves drying on sun bleached sand are overlapped and rendered as kinetic abstractions. Each sequence is accompanied by a montage of natural sounds, which seek to suggest a musical equivalence of treatment, alongside the visuals.