MURRAY MARTINAs a boy, Murray Martin, who died on August 14, 2007, visited picture palaces such as the Broadway, the Alhambra and the Empire picture palaces in Stoke-on-Trent four or five times a week.Born into a family of potters and miners in Meir, Mr Martin went on become an internationally acclaimed filmmaker – but his working-class roots were always at the forefront of his work.He was born in 1943 and attended Longton High School before moving to Newcastle-upon-Tyne to study fine art. After a stint teaching art history, he went to London to study filmmaking at Regent Street Polytechnic.Along with fellow filmmaker Graham Denman and photographer Sirkka-Liisa Konttinen (CORR), he formed the film and photography collective Amber – named after a Tyneside ale. The group decamped back to the North East the following year.It has been responsible for 40 films and 100 photographic narratives depicting working-class life, and has had work screened as far afield as Europe and Australia.Much of the group’s work has been produced in partnership with Channel 4 Four, and it was during a meeting with the new TV station in the 1980s that Mr Martin met Ellin Hare, who was to become his partner as well as another member of the collective.Amber’s award-winning films include In Fading Light, about sea fisherman and the women they leave behind, and Seacoal, about people who collect coal from the sea shore.In 1992, Mr Martin returned to the Potteries for a screening of Dream On at the Film Theatre in Stoke. The film documents the lives of women on the Meadow Well Estate in a North Shields estate, the scene of violent disturbances the previous year.Although he was always suspicious of political parties, Mr Martin’s socialist ideals were reflected in the fact that all members of Amber received equal pay and traditional hierarchies were eschewed.Speaking in 1993, he said: "The job of a director within Amber is to direct what has been collectively agreed."Having worked as a bookie’s runner for his uncle at the age of 10, he retained a passion for gambling and even bought his own horse.He turned the spotlight on the racing world of harness racing with his 1995 film Eden Valley, and helped to set up the UK Standardbred Racing Association.Mr Martin died from a heart attack on August 14, aged 64. He is survived by his partner Ellin Hare, their son Mattie and his son Young from an earlier relationship.
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