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The screening at 7.30 pm on Thu 14 Dec will have descriptive subtitles.

Tish Murtha’s photography of people on the margins of society in Thatcher’s Britain challenged inequality. Yet, she was unable to escape the poverty she documented and died aged 56, her work relatively unknown. TISH follows her daughter revisiting key images and moments in her mother’s life to establish her legacy.

Kids-Jumping-On-To-Mattresses-Youth-Unemployment-1981

As a working-class photographer from the North East, Tish felt an obligation to the people and problems within her local environment and used documentary photography to highlight and challenge the social disadvantages she herself suffered. Unlike many social documentary photographers, Tish was from the same streets as the people she photographed, lending a poignant intimacy to her stark yet tender black-and-white images. However, despite early acclaim for her work, she was unable to make a living from photography and escape the poverty she documented. She died aged 56, her work relatively unknown.

Lady On Overturned Chair, Youth Unemployment (1981)

Tish’s brilliant eye, her unswerving ethics, and constant empathy are present in her images, yet little is known of the artist herself. In this feature documentary, we follow Tish’s daughter, Ella, as she opens up her mother’s archive for the first time on screen to reveal a treasure trove of unseen images, artifacts, letters, and diaries. Ella takes to the road to meet people who knew Tish and asks why she did not receive more recognition in her lifetime.

Two women sat on a bench facing each other at the beach

In digging into the past, Ella comes to terms with her own grief at her mother’s passing and reconnects with family members not seen in years. By shining a light on a working-class artist who went largely unrecognised in her lifetime, the documentary questions the value placed on working-class people both in the past and present day

“Tish Murtha, who lived a life as tough as those she shot in different eras of deprivation and marginalisation, receives a wholehearted and riveting tribute” The Guardian

“An authentic insight into the devastating impact of unemployment and poverty” Screen International 

“Details leap out from the photographs, not just the faces of those she captured, but the twist of cigarette smoke, metal ashtrays recalling the tang of wet ash, plasters on scrubbed knees”  Eye for Films

Screening on Friday 8 December will feature a Q&A hosted by the fabulous Bob Fischer featuring Tish producer Jen Corcoran.