Christine Bellamy was the co-founder and longest serving member of the Sheffield Film Co-op. The Co-op did not begin its life fully formed as a filmmaking group. It grew out of the new/second women’s liberation movement of the early 70s, which was variously engaging in raising consciousness about issues women faced in their domestic and/or work lives. This engagement produced differing analyses, ideas and practical approaches and soon highlighted the need to disseminate feminist ideas about the issues to a wider audience than those women already attending meetings.
Christine was an active member of ACTT Yorkshire and Humberside and continued when it became BECTU. After the trading closure of the Sheffield Film Co-op in 1991, Christine continued to work as a sound recordist. She then taught sound and radio production at the University of Humberside and Lincoln from 1993 and later the University of Lincoln until 2007. She had a life long passion for music and singing and later for acting. She performed one of Alan Bennett’s “Talking Heads” with Commonground Theatre Lincoln. She participated in the formation of a skiffle group, The Yorkshire Teabags in Sheffield where she always lived.
By Angela Martin
