Documentary in impulse, but naturalistic in effect, this is a moody, melancholy tale of seacoalers living in a ramshackle trailer community on Britain's rough Northumberland coast. Here, coal spilled from the local pits washes ashore for the taking; to this day, families come with their horse-drawn carts in the dark early morning hours to gather the shards off the beach. Their sale makes for a hand-to-mouth living for the whole community. But in the last decade, public access to the shoreline has given way to private ownership, threatening the traditional way of life for this generation of seacoalers. Seacoal is the story of Ray (Ray Stubbs), a hardbitten individualist who butts up against the new rules of the game and loses; and Betty (Amber Styles), who finds a home among the seacoaling women with their grim wisdom and their surprising, gentle tales of love. The film was conceived and lyrically realized by Amber Films, a production company and actors' ensemble formed in 1968 to document the lives of working class people. Both cast and crew lived among the seacoalers for two years. The result is a remarkable merger of souls between the collective's actors and the seacoalers who portray themselves. (Seacoal premiered locally at the San Francisco International Film Festival '87.)