Martin Bell (director)

Martin Bell (born January 16, 1943) is an American film director best known for films such as Streetwise[1] and American Heart.[2] He was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary for Streetwise.

Martin Bell
Bell with wife Mary Ellen Mark at the 2011 Look 3 photography conference
Born (1943-01-16) January 16, 1943
Huddersfield, Yorkshire
NationalityAmerican
OccupationFilm director
Years active1971-present
SpouseMary Ellen Mark

Career

Documentaries

In 1983, Bell's wife, photographer Mary Ellen Mark, was hired by Life magazine to photograph a story on homeless children in Seattle, Washington with writer Cheryl McCall. The essay was titled "Streets of the Lost" and was published in July 1983.[3] Having befriended many of the homeless children, Mark contacted her husband who flew to Seattle to document them on film.[4] The project was eventually released as the documentary film Streetwise, which was subsequently nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature in 1985.[5]

Bell and Mark continued to document the ongoing struggles of one homeless child, Erin "Tiny" Blackwell, throughout her life. Their work on Blackwell was featured on Nightline and resulted in the feature-length documentary follow up Tiny: The Life of Erin Blackwell, which was released theatrically in 2016 and on home video by the Criterion Collection in 2021.

Feature films

Following the success of Streetwise, Bell made his feature film debut with American Heart starring Jeff Bridges and Edward Furlong. Inspired by the father-son relationship between Steetwise subject Dewayne Pomeroy and his incarcerated father,[6] the film was nominated for five Independent Spirit Awards including Best First Feature for Martin Bell and won for Best Male Lead for Jeff Bridges.[7]

Bell subsequently made two more narrative features, Hidden in America (1996) and Brotherhood of Murder (1998).

Filmography

References
  1. "Streetwise". The New York Times. 1985.
  2. "American Heart". The New York Times. 1993.
  3. Berman, Eliza (26 May 2015). "See Mary Ellen Mark's Most Memorable Photo Essay". Time. Archived from the original on May 27, 2015. Retrieved 28 May 2015.
  4. Mark, Mary Ellen (1985). Streetwise. Aperture.
  5. "The 57th Academy Awards (1985) Nominees and Winners". oscars.org. Archived from the original on December 28, 2011. Retrieved May 20, 2019.
  6. Hartl, John (May 6, 1993). "Jeff Bridges' New Movie "American Heart" Had Its Origins On Seattle Streets — Seattle Root". Seattle Times. Seattle, Washington. Retrieved November 3, 2014.
  7. "36 Years of Nominees and Winners | 1994 Winners" (PDF). Independent Spirit Awards: 47. Retrieved 2022-10-06.
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