Henry G. Martin

Henry G. Martin
Born
Henry Goule Martin

3 April 1952
Lewisham Hospital, London, England
Died13 May 2022(2022-05-13) (aged 70)
London, England
Resting placeHighgate Cemetery, London
Alma materWest Surrey College of Art and Design
Occupation(s)Film director and producer
Notable workGrove Music (1981), Big George is Dead (1987)
Children4
RelativesTony Martin (brother)

Henry G. Martin (Henry Goule Martin) (3 April 1952 – 13 May 2022) was a Black British independent film maker in the 1980s and early '90s.[1] In addition to directing and producing films, he is known for starting the production company Kuumba in 1982 along with film makers Menelik Shabazz and Imruh Bakari, which would then lead to the founding of the noted Ceddo Film and Video Workshop.[2]

Early life

Henry Goule Martin was born to Trinidadian parents Claude and Vida Martin in Lewisham, south-east London, in 1952.[3] When Martin was three months old, he returned with his parents to Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago.[2] He spent his formative years immersed in Carnival culture in the Woodbrook neighbourhood of western Port of Spain.[3] He discovered his connection to pan-African ideology among this creative arts scene and the city's anti-colonial street culture.[2] Martin returned to England in the early 1970s and studied film at the West Surrey College of Art and Design, Farnham.[3]

Ceddo Film and Video Workshop

Martin worked closely with Ceddo as a producer and mentor.[3] For example, he established Screenwrite (1993), a prominent screenplay programme for Black writers, in association with the British Film Institute and Channel 4 Television.[2] The production company Kuumba Black Arts (founded earlier in the same year as Ceddo) paved the way for its inception and position at the centre of radical Black filmmaking in London throughout the 1980s and '90s.[1][4] Some of the films produced by the workshop include Milton Bryan's The People’s Account (1985); Shabazz's Step Forward Youth (1977), Blood Ah Go Run (1982),[3] and Time and Judgement: Diaries of a 400 Year Exile (1988); the late D. Elmina Davies’ Omega Rising: Women of Rastafari (1988);[2] Bakari's Blue Notes and Exiled Voices (1991) and The Mark of the Hand (1987).[1][3]

Film and television work

While remaining devoted to Black independent film, Martin also worked in the broader British film industry, for example, directing a season of Everybody Here, an early 1980s children's television programme presented by the poet Michael Rosen.[3]

Martin directed a number of his own films and documentaries in the 1980s, depicting Afro-Caribbean street culture and politics in Britain.[4][5] He would eventually leave filmmaking due to allegations from the film industry that Grove Music supported violent confrontations between the racist police and the Black community.[2] After the release of Big George is Dead, Martin made the decision to retire from filmmaking, feeling that to seek the support of the film industry would betray his independence and radicalism.[2]

Martin's role Film Year
Director Grove Carnival 1981
Director Grove Music 1981
Producer Grenada- Is Freedom We Making? 1983
Director & Producer Trinidad and Tobago - Money Is Not the Problem 1983
Director Big George is Dead 1987
Grave of Henry G. Martin in Highgate Cemetery

Personal life

With his former wife, Shirley, Martin had a son and daughter.[1] With his partner, Paula Spencer, he had two sons.[1] Paula and his children survive him.[3] He was the brother of scholar Professor Tony Martin (1942–2013).[6]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e "Henry Martin obituary - EARTH TIMES". earthtimes.in. 28 June 2022. Archived from the original on 19 October 2022. Retrieved 19 October 2022.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g "Black British Film Pioneer Henry G. Martin: An Obituary, by Louis Chude-Sokei". The Black Scholar. 27 May 2022. Retrieved 3 June 2022.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h Katz, David (28 June 2022). "Henry Martin obituary". The Guardian. Retrieved 27 July 2022.
  4. ^ a b "Henry Martin". www.bafta.org. 11 July 2022. Retrieved 18 October 2022.
  5. ^ Rugg, Akua (1981). "Four Films with Blacks as Subjects". Race Today Review (December 1981–January 1982).
  6. ^ "Martin, Professor Anthony". Trinidad and Tobago Guardian. 24 January 2013.