Paul Sng’s riveting portrait of Tish Murtha captures the passion and commitment of a trailblazing photographer who dedicated her life to recording the hopes, dreams and struggles of working-class communities in the industrial North East.

A young boy and girl share a quiet moment while friends play behind them on a terraced street. Four youths lie against a wall while one of them aims his air rifle at a nearby target. A young woman looks reflectively into the distance, as dusk falls on the council estate behind her. Tish Murtha’s images amplified the often unspoken concerns of the people she photographed, who ranged from children and adolescents to unemployed adults, sex workers and families struggling to live in modern-day Britain. Born in the northern coastal town of South Shields, Tish began her extraordinary career in the late 1970s. She was driven by a fierce conviction to record the impact of Thatcher era de-industrialisation upon local communities and her striking black and white images convey a tenderness and intimacy that set her apart from her peers.

In Tish, Paul Sng celebrates the vision and profound humanism of this gifted artist. As the film questions the value placed on art and artists from working class roots, we follow Tish's daughter Ella, as she fights to preserve her mother's legacy. No less striking than the work of its subject, Tish is a powerful tribute to a vital artist, activist and social chronicler, and a rallying call to all whose engagement with art questions who gets seen and heard, who doesn't, and why.

United Kingdom | 2023 | Paul Sng | 90 min | World Premiere | Doors open 5.15pm

Tickets go on general sale on Wednesday 10 May 2023, 12pm.

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