Directed by Paul Sng, exploring social documentary photographer and trailblazer Tish Murtha, who dedicated her life to documenting the lives of working-class communities in North East England, led by her daughter, Ella Murtha.
Right from this start this portrait of Tish Murtha embodies a great personality and sincerity. It walks viewers through Murtha’s life, the ups and downs and builds a thorough perspective of the sort of person she was. It digs deeply into her talent for photography, and it also does big justice to the issues that she was passionate about, those you could see in her work. She tried to show a different side of Britain, one that many of the time tried to ignore or actively undermined, especially in the Thatcher era. Even to this day it’s still true that the North doesn’t get enough representation in the media, with so many projects centring around London.
There’s a hugely personal perspective to the way that Tish moved, in the tone overall and in that it’s being viewed through the perspective of her daughter, Ella Murtha. It’s a great choice which balances the film and gives it a certain friendly atmosphere. Her experiences have a lot to add, as well as telling their own story of how she believes she impacted her mother’s career. Although it unfortunately only dips its toes into the discussion of how opportunities were limited for women, it undoubtedly acknowledges it but it’s a topic worthy of a bigger exploration.
Although Tish’s one main weakness is its penchant for sentimentality and dramatics, bringing through recreations aiming to emotionally charge the atmosphere but ending up taking away from it. There’s a strong feeling to this film that’s grounded and frank, reflecting its subject so when it goes for these unnecessary, pondering type recreations, they push away from that and it’s a shame. The narration on the other hand does work, providing an extra edge of being able to see things from Murtha’s perspective.
Tish is a tribute to a talented woman who never got her due but it also becomes a sincere love letter from daughter to mother. It’s a story that does a great job of balancing itself between exploring her career and the issues she was committed to exposing. It’s captivating and compelling but slightly disappointing to see it try to use quite basic tactics at evoking emotion when it really didn’t need to, the story speaks for itself.
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