Built in a period of brutal modernism, Newcastle Civic Centre avoided inhumanity with an elegance of design which still wins fans today.
The Grade II listed building designed by George Kenyon, has now inspired three short films produced by Newcastle's Duffel Films.
Meeting in Progress is the first of the three to be completed and will be screened tonight in the Council Chambers of the Civic Centre before a private audience. Duffel Films director Andrew Coats says: "The first time I visited the Civic Centre I was struck by the way in which the building was designed with an eye to the future, or, how the future was imagined in the 1960s, and as a consequence the building has a timeless quality."
Andrew approached Newcastle City Council with a proposition and after a fair bit of research, a story began to emerge, incorporating the unique architecture. The location has completely inspired the content and story of Meeting in Progress.
The short film centres on two characters: Thomson and Baker. They live in a seemingly endless world of corridors and rooms, all empty, except perhaps for one they have not yet dared to enter, where a meeting is in progress.
The film stars local actors Trevor Fox and Alex Kinsey, who says: "It's a stunning building, with beautiful lighting and furniture - it looks like a film set, you step back in time into a very cool period of design. It's like the BBC's recent Life on Mars series, but with much better sets!"
