A docu-drama produced by students of the North East Media Training Centre (NEMTC) about a young man’s fascination and love for the United State of America turns into a nightmare. Filmed in part at the then recently opened Metro Centre shopping mall in Gateshead, the film incorporates a mixture of archive stills, images and music to tell its story of the Americanisation of the region and what effects this may have for the future. From an elevated position the River Tyne and the city of...

A docu-drama produced by students of the North East Media Training Centre (NEMTC) about a young man’s fascination and love for the United State of America turns into a nightmare. Filmed in part at the then recently opened Metro Centre shopping mall in Gateshead, the film incorporates a mixture of archive stills, images and music to tell its story of the Americanisation of the region and what effects this may have for the future. From an elevated position the River Tyne and the city of Newcastle-upon-Tyne on the far banks below with the Dunstan Staiths in the foreground. Traffic crosses the Redheugh Bridge into Newcastle and in a nearby high-rise apartment block a young man sits in his living room watching American baseball on the television. He switches channel where Percy Sledge sings ‘When A Man Loves a Woman’ in an advert for Levi 501 jeans. As the advert plays the man dozes of in his armchair. The advert ends with the main character, a solider, being driven away on a Greyhound bus. The film changes to the man in the armchair now on a bus himself still listen to Percy Sledge on his Walkman, he takes a sip from a can on Budweiser beer. He looks out his window at a road sign on the approach to a roundabout, one of the destinations the village of New York four miles from Whitley Bay. A Greyhound bus overtakes and another road sign for Washington also in Tyne and Wear. Title: American Dream Another road sign for the Metro Centre shopping centre changes to a country-and-western singer performing there. The AMC cinema also inside the Metro Centre with its ‘Hollywood Express’ concessions stand where a bucket is filled with popcorn and mustard is spread onto a hotdog. Taken from another film an America woman speaks in voiceover describing places like the Metro Centre as ‘an accurate urban reality being replaced by the falsehood of the shopping mall’. To illustrate the point a security guard at the Metro Centre wears a uniform very similar to that of American police officers. The golden arches of the local McDonald’s fast-food restaurant and a phantom walk past of various food kiosks in a food hall, not believed to be inside the Metro Centre. Again, in voiceover an American man also taken from another production talking about not being fearful of ‘malls of the future’ as they are becoming ‘more and more human’. As a selection of credit cards are laid out on a table, another American voice talking about being in debt. Back inside the Metro Centre the country-and-western singer continues to perform to a small crowd gathered around him. Over the theme tune to the television series ‘Dynasty’ a poster for Littlewoods Stores Metro Centre that features woman wearing a glamorous dress with the catchphrase reading ‘Invitation to a Hollywood Party’. Inside the store itself a small crowd watches as models parade up and down an aisle in the latest fashions. On a television screen a brief clip from an episode of ‘Dynasty’ featuring Joan Collins changes to a man lighting a cigar with a £5 note. A montage of clips from other television programmes and movie poster featuring 80’s action stars Charles Bronson, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Chuck Norris ending on the Stars and Stripes flat for the United States of America and the Union Jack. A young man in an American football uniform puts on his helmet. In a field, men tackling each other followed by a montage of them in training and playing against each other to the music of Buddy Holly’s ‘Not Fade Away’. To New Model Army singing ‘51st State’ a young woman looking over racks of clothing in an American themed shop called ‘Flip Hollywood’. Around the store American brands such as Levi, Harley-Davidson and various images of Bald eagles as an emblem of America. At ‘Luckies American Bar’ the young man last seen on the Greyhound bus sits at a table beside a large poster for Humphrey Bogart. Above him several television screens on which he appears apparently asleep. Around the bar a collection of American licence plates and a Greyhound sign that reads ‘Colored Restrooms’ as well as other American paraphernalia. Back on the television screen the image has changed from the man to the Stars and Stripes. On a television screen in a shop window a clip from an edition of the American police drama ‘Hill Street Blues’ that ends with one of the officers featured being shot. The young man turns to see a security guard at the Metro Centre wearing his American policeman themed uniform coming up an escalator. Over the theme tune of the series, more clips from the show featuring guns being fired. To U2 performing ‘Bullet the Blue Sky’ a montage of both moving and still image representing war and poverty in America including the images of Dorothea Lange. Archive footage of America police attacking protestors during a demonstration in the 1930s is intercut with British police attacking miners during the 1984-85 Miners Strike. More archive footage of American soldiers climbing off helicopters during the Vietnam war changes to show both dead and wounded men, women and children taken following the attack on Libya by the United State in 1986. With a jump the young man awakens in his armchair at home. On the television the Stars and Stripes. He attempts to change the channel, but they all show him only the American flag over the American national anthem. To the group The The singing ‘Heartland’ the young man walks through a demolition site carrying a Marlboro cigarette carrier bag. He takes from it an American flag dropping it onto the ground. He then tips out his collection of American paraphernalia before walking away. A nearby three-story apartment block changes to a montage of still images of American beginning with a high-rise building followed by a newspaper headline that reads ‘Doctors find starvation increasing in US survey’ changes to a photograph of an older couple walking past a British Job Centre and a woman working a checkout inside a supermarket. With The The still performing ‘Heartland’ over the closing titles and credits. Title: “Today there are 76 American companies in the Northern Region”. Northern Development Corporation “Uncle Sam has big stake in North: 30,000 Geordies are on the payroll”. Evening Chronicle Headline November 1987: Unemployment figures: North East: Male: 146,000 Female: 55,400 Total: 201,800 Credit: American Dream Production Team Lynne Colton, Davina Hoyle, Jacquie Lawrence, Stephen McKenna, Paul Maven, Nicholas Murphy Title: Thanks to Metro Centre Management, Sears, Littlewoods, Flip of Hollywood, Luckies Corner Bar, Redby Travel, Levi Strauss UK, The Washington Presidents, Tyne Tees Television Special thanks to Tin Gordon, Barbara Nicholls, Colin Bone End title: © NEMTC 1987