Welcome to Washington

Washington locals get up close and personal with U.S. President Jimmy Carter and the Queen in the year of the Silver Jubilee.

This double-barrel documentary covers the razzamatazz of feted visits to old and new Washington by U.S. President Jimmy Carter and the Queen in Silver Jubilee year. The crowds are out in force to greet the personable president on his first overseas trip, as are the British boys in blue and conspicuous American Secret Service agents. Two months later, the Queen and Prince Philip enjoy a colourful display by more than 1,000 children in the north east’s top juvenile jazz bands.

This newsreel reportage on Super 8 was, remarkably, the work of a lone amateur cameraman, Michael Gough, Head of Education Services for the Hearing-Impaired in Sunderland and a member of the Newcastle and District Amateur Cinematographers Association (ACA), who bought his first camera in 1968. Welcome to Washington was awarded a coveted Movie Maker's Ten Best trophy for its slick editing in 1978 and was screened at the National Film Theatre in London.