As a working class photographer from North East England, Tish Murtha 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 was unable to escape the poverty she documented. She died aged 56, her work relatively unknown.

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, artefacts, letters and diaries and takes to the road to meet people who knew Tish and ask why she did not receive more recognition in her lifetime.

The 6.00pm screening on Mon 20 Nov will be followed by a Q&A with director Paul Sng, producer Jen Corcoran, and actor Maxine Peake, hosted by Belfast-born writer, photographer and researcher Philip Arneill, whose critically acclaimed Tokyo Jazz Joints photobook was published by Kehrer Verlag in June 2023.

"Paul Sng’s intimate documentary resurrects a fleeting art radical, honouring her incisive political views as well as her photographs" -  Sight and Sound