Thursday, 26 October 2023

Film Festival 2024 dates and launch film

15-17 March 2024

Launch film, Tish: Thurs 30 November 2023

The Hebden Bridge Film Festival, today announced its 4th season will take place from 15-17 March next year.

This year's launch film will be "Tish" shown at the Hebden Bridge Picture House on Thursday 30 November 2023 at 7:00pm. The screening will be followed by a Q&A with director Paul Sng in conversation with Louise Wadley from the Hebden Bridge Film Festival.

Tish Murtha, a pioneering British photographer who used her camera to expose social inequality in the 1970s-80s, is the subject of Paul Sng's (Poly Styrene: I Am a Cliché) powerful and moving new documentary film.

Brought up in South Sheilds, Murtha felt driven to chronicle the impact of Thatcherism and deindustrialisation on working class communities in Northeast England, and to explore her community from the inside, challenging stereotypes and highlighting the social disadvantages that she herself suffered from.

She captured images that repudiated the fetishisation of poverty, depicting the realities of her subjects' lives with optimism, humour and humanity instead.

The film follows Murtha's daughter Ella, the custodian of the Tish Murtha Archive, as she seeks to elevate and preserve her mother's work and legacy. The film is a passionate and compassionate tribute to a brilliantly talented photographer whose career was tragically cut short and whose name should be up there with the other UK Photographers like Martin Parr and Sunil Gupta.

Festival director, Louise Wadley told the HebWeb, "We're delighted to be launching our 2024 festival with this moving and insightful documentary and to have Paul Sng join us for a Q and A afterwards to give his insights into Tish's life and work is really special. Many of our audience will recognise Tish's iconic images even if they did not realise she was the photographer."

As an added bonus, the voice of Murtha is played by HBFF patron Maxine Peake.

Tickets for the Launch Night's screening of Tish are available to book exclusively on the Hebden Bridge Picture House website. Earlybird passes for the festival will be available from the 30th November.

About the Hebden Bridge Film Festival

The Hebden Bridge Film Festival in association with the beautifully restored, state-of-the-art Hebden Bridge Picture House cinema and with Hebden Bridge Town Hall brings artists and diverse audiences together to celebrate storytelling. With strong roots in local and independent film, HBFF is synonymous with creative expression and entertainment. The festival brings film lovers to the Calderdale valley and champions emerging and established voices and introduces new ideas through exclusive premieres, exhibitions, conversations, and live performances.

The festival was founded by Louise Wadley and Jay Rutovitz in 2019 to champion the stories of those who exist in the margins, sit outside the mainstream or just plain don't fit in and promote films produced and directed by women, LGBTQ, working-class and BME filmmakers and filmmakers with disabilities. The annual Hebden Bridge Film Festival will celebrate it's fourth year from March 15-17.