Tish (2023 documentary)

Last updated

Tish
Directed by Paul Sng
Produced byJennifer Corcoran
Starring
Cinematography
  • Hollie Galloway
  • David Lee
Production
companies
  • Demon Snapper Productions
  • Freya Films
  • Hopscotch Films
  • Velvet Joy Productions
CountryUnited Kingdom

Tish is a British 2023 documentary film directed by Paul Sng. The film details the life and work of Newcastle social documentary photographer Tish Murtha. The film was critically acclaimed.

Contents

Background

Tish Murtha was best known for her work documenting the working-class area of Elswick, in the west end of Newcastle in the late 1970s. At that time Elswick was considered "the worst square mile in England" for its poverty and deprivation. [1] She lived in the area and was able to gain the trust of those she photographed. Her series Youth Unemployment and Elswick Kids were particularly important in bringing her work to a wider audience. After a period living and working in London in the mid-1980s, she returned to Newcastle but struggled to find work and funding in the 1990s and 2000s. She died suddenly of a brain aneurysm in relative obscurity and poverty in March 2013, one day before her 57th birthday. [2]

Production

Her daughter Ella Murtha is custodian of her comprehensive archive of photographs, correspondence and other material and was involved in promoting her work through exhibitions and monographs of her work. Director Paul Sng was involved in editing two books of social documentary photography; Invisible Britain: Portrait of Hope and Resilience in 2018 and The Separated Isle: Invisible Britain in 2021 and Ella Murtha wrote a blurb for him. [3] Sng contacted Ella Murtha and asked if she had considered making a documentary about her mother. She was initially opposed to the project, but met Sng in Newcastle. They bonded over their status as only children. [4] She has one proviso, that her mother's politics would be central to the documentary. [5]  The film was produced in the northeast of England with producer Jennifer Corcoran of Freya Films and cinematographer, Hollie Galloway from Middlesbrough. [6]

The film features interviews with Ella and her family members, friends, mentors and photography contemporaries such as David Hurn and Chris Killip. There was no contemporary film footage of Murtha available, so the film features extensive use of Murtha's correspondence and writing, read by actress Maxine Peake. [1] The film features recreations of Murtha working in her dark room, which was filmed in a disused Marks & Spencers shop in Darlington. [4] The set had previously been used for Ricky Gervais's sitcom After Life , the sitcom's production designer Richard Drew was a fan of Murtha's work and adapted the set for the documentary. [4] Murtha, played by Shin-Fei Chen, is only ever seen from behind in the reconstructions. [4]

The film was part crowdfunded through a Kickstarter campaign, with £45,000 raised from 850 contributors [7] and £75,000 of support from Screen Scotland [8] in association with BBC England and BBC Arts. [9] Support was also provided from the BFI Doc Society Fund. [9]

The film premiered, opening the Sheffield documentary festival on 14 June 2023, [7] and went on general release in the United Kingdom on 17 November 2023. [9]

Reception

The film received universally positive reviews and currently holds a 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes from 9 reviews. [10] Writing for The Arts Desk , Graham Fuller described it as "one of the best British films of 2023". [2] The film featured in The Guardian's top 50 films of 2023 at number 46 [11] and made number 10 on the Financial Times 's best films of 2023. [12]

Related Research Articles

Tish is a feminine given name and a nickname, frequently for Letitia or variations thereof. Tish is also an uncommon surname, accounting for around 500 people in the 2000 US Census and 550 in the 2010 US Census, around 95% of whom self-identified as white.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kirby Dick</span> American film director, producer, and screenwriter

Kirby Bryan Dick is an American film director, producer, screenwriter, and editor best known for directing documentary films. He received Academy Award nominations for Best Documentary Feature for directing Twist of Faith (2005) and The Invisible War (2012). He has also received numerous awards from film festivals, including the Sundance Film Festival and Los Angeles Film Festival.

Bluecoat Press is a publisher based in London, England. Established in 1992, Bluecoat Press takes its name from the Bluecoat Chambers, in central Liverpool, where it was based from 1992 until 2003.

Wendy McMurdo specialises in photography and digital media. In 2018 she was named as one of the Hundred Heroines, an award created by the Royal Photographic Society to showcase global female photographic practice.

Shirley Baker was a British photographer, best known for her street photography and street portraits in working class areas of Greater Manchester. She worked as a freelance writer and photographer on various magazines, books and newspapers, and as a lecturer on photography. Most of her photography was made for her personal interest but she undertook occasional commissions.

Gordon MacDonald works with photography as an artist, writer, curator, press photographer and educator.

Jimmy Forsyth was a British amateur photographer, who in his later life became celebrated for his portrayal of the working class communities of Tyneside and received wide recognition for this achievement prior to his death aged 95. He was equally accomplished in showcasing both the people and the environment of his chosen locality.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alex Prager</span> American photographer and filmmaker

Alex Prager is an American artist, director, and screenwriter based in Los Angeles.

Café Royal Books is an independent publisher of photography photobooks or zines, run by Craig Atkinson and based in Ainsdale, Southport, England. Café Royal Books produces small-run publications predominantly documenting social and cultural change, Including themes of youth, leisure, music, protest, race, religion, industry, identity, architecture and fashion, often in Britain and Ireland, using both new work and photographs from archives. Café Royal Books has been operating since 2005 and has published over 950 books and zines.

Patricia Anne "Tish" Murtha was a British social documentary photographer best known for documenting marginalised communities, social realism and working class life in Newcastle upon Tyne and the North East of England.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marilyn Stafford</span> British photographer (1925–2023)

Marilyn Jean Stafford was a British photographer. Born and raised in the United States, she moved to Paris as a young woman, where she began working as a photojournalist. She settled in London, but travelled and worked across the world, including in Tunisia, India, and Lebanon. Her work was published in The Observer and other newspapers. Stafford also worked as a fashion photographer in Paris, where she photographed models in the streets in everyday situations, rather than in the more usual opulent surroundings.

<i>The B-Side: Elsa Dorfmans Portrait Photography</i> 2016 American documentary film directed by Errol Morris

The B-Side: Elsa Dorfman's Portrait Photography is a 2016 American documentary film directed by Errol Morris. The film explores the life and career of Elsa Dorfman. The film was released on June 30, 2017, by Neon.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robert Darch</span> British artist-photographer

Robert Darch is a British artist-photographer. His first book, The Moor, was published in 2018.

Side Gallery is a photography gallery in Newcastle upon Tyne, run by Amber Film & Photography Collective. It opened in 1977 as Side Gallery and Cinema with a remit to show humanist photography "both by and commissioned by the group along with work it found inspirational". It is the only venue in the UK dedicated to documentary photography. Side Gallery is located at Amber's base in Side, a street in Quayside, Newcastle near the Tyne Bridge.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">British Culture Archive</span> Photography organisation

The British Culture Archive is a non-profit organisation and platform for British documentary photography based in Manchester. Its website, community workshops and exhibitions show 20th-century working class history and popular culture. In 2021 the organisation set up BCA21 which highlights 21st Century documentary photography. It has exhibited in London, Manchester and Berlin. Its People's Archive offshoot crowdsources images of everyday life in Britain from the 1930s to 2000.

Poly Styrene: I Am a Cliché is a 2021 documentary film about Poly Styrene, the lead singer of X-Ray Spex. Directed by Celeste Bell and Paul Sng, the film features Bell, Poly Styrene's daughter, exploring her mother's history and legacy through archival footage and interviews with her peers and fans.

<i>All the Beauty and the Bloodshed</i> 2022 American film

All the Beauty and the Bloodshed is a 2022 American biographical documentary film about photographer, artist, and activist Nan Goldin. The film is produced, co-edited and directed by Laura Poitras, and tackles Goldin's life thought her advocacy during the HIV/AIDS crisis in the 80's, and her fight against the Sackler family for their role in the current opioid epidemic in the United States. Poitras, a long-time friend and fan, stated that "Nan's art and vision has inspired my work for years, and has influenced generations of filmmakers."

Richard Sandler is an American street photographer and documentary filmmaker who has made work in New York City. His photographs have been published in The Eyes of the City (2016) and are held in the collections of Brooklyn Museum and the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. His films include The Gods of Times Square (1999), Brave New York (2004), and Radioactive City (2011). He has received a Guggenheim Fellowship for filmmaking.

Paul Sng is a British Chinese documentary filmmaker, based in Edinburgh.

References

  1. 1 2 "Rediscovering the work of forgotten documentary photographer Tish Murtha". Dazed Digital. November 14, 2023. Retrieved December 10, 2023.
  2. 1 2 "Tish review - haunting portrait of a driven working-class photographer". The Arts Desk. November 17, 2023. Retrieved December 10, 2023.
  3. ↑ "'With a documentary, you're beholden to the truth': Director Paul Sng on telling Tish's story". British Journal of Photography. Retrieved December 10, 2023.
  4. 1 2 3 4 "Cannes Docs interview: Paul Sng on Tish, Scottish Showcase". Business Docs Europe. May 18, 2023. Retrieved December 10, 2023.
  5. ↑ "TISH: new documentary film pays tribute to the powerful work of photographer Tish Murtha". Buzzmag. December 2023. Retrieved December 10, 2023.
  6. ↑ Smyth, Diane (March 30, 2021). "Wasteland wanderer: how Tish Murtha captured the beating heart of Tyneside". The Guardian. Retrieved December 10, 2023.
  7. 1 2 "The Outsider A film about the forgotten photographer to open Sheffield Docfest". The Art Newspaper. April 28, 2023. Retrieved December 10, 2023.
  8. ↑ "Tish". Screen Scotland. January 12, 2021. Retrieved December 10, 2023.
  9. 1 2 3 "Tish release in UK cinemas". Together Films. November 16, 2023. Retrieved December 10, 2023.
  10. ↑ "Tish". Rottern Tomatoes. Retrieved December 10, 2023.
  11. ↑ "The best films of 2023". The Guardian. Retrieved December 10, 2023.
  12. ↑ "Best films of 2023 — titans from Tár and Napoleon to Tom Cruise". Financial Times. Retrieved December 10, 2023.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.