T. J. Martin
| TJ Martin | |
|---|---|
| Born | Thomas McKay Martin Jr. |
| Residence | Los Angeles, California |
| Alma mater | Western Washington University |
| Occupation | Film Director, Television Director, Film Editor, Commercial Director |
T. J. Martin (born Thomas McKay Martin Jr., September 7, 1979) is an American filmmaker. His film, Undefeated (2011), for which he was co-director, co-editor, and co-cinematographer, won the 2012 Oscar for Best Documentary Feature. Martin is, notably, the first film director of African-American descent to win an Oscar for a feature length film.
Martin was born on September 7, 1979 in Seattle Washington to Tommy Martin and Tina Bell, guitarist and singer, respectively, of the late punk/early grunge Seattle band Bam Bam.
Martin graduated from Roosevelt High School and went on to attend Fairhaven College at Western Washington University, where he studied American Cultural Studies, graduating in 2005. While there Martin co-directed his first film, the feature documentary A Day in the Hype of America (2002), concerning the hysteria around the Y2K problem, which won Best Documentary at the 2002 Rhode Island International Film Festival.
In 2007 in Los Angeles, Martin met future directing partner Daniel Lindsay, when they collaborated on the feature documentary , directed by Lindsay and edited by Martin. The film was distributed by Morgan Spurlock's company Warrior Poets.
As co-directors, Martin and Lindsay next made the feature documentary Undefeated, which chronicles the football team of Manassas High School in Memphis, Tennessee. The film focuses on the lives of several of the players and their coach, Bill Courtney, over the course of a single season.
Undefeated premiered at the 2011 SXSW Film Festival and was purchased by The Weinstein Company for North American distribution just hours after the first screening. Released to near universal acclaim, the film went on to win the Academy Award for Best Feature Documentary in 2012. The film holds a 96% rating on the review aggregator site Rotten Tomatoes.
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