The Pursuit of Happiness (2008)
Amber founder member Murray Martin was active in harness racing. A documentary about a Co Durham horsey family became a film about him, when he died in 2007.
Amber began to work on a documentary about the Coulsons, a family deeply involved in the horsey culture of harness racing and road racing. Sanchez Coulson had taken a key role in Shooting Magpies and the whole family had helped out making the road racing and funeral scenes work. Murray died in 2007 from a heart attack ironically and improbably brought on by an infection by the bacteria Streptococcus equi – the horse disease known as strangles.
Recognised as a major figure in British film and photography history, Martin was loved and revered as in the harness racing world. The film became an exploration of a filmmaker who became part of the world he documented; an exploration of how to be in this world.
Amber Films, 90 mins, 2008
Watch an excerpt
