Photograph courtesy of Chris Martin

Chris Martin (left) and his business partner, Robert Poswall, work in their production company, 400 Blows.




Local filmmaker documents history

By Shari Kaplan

As a Santa Clara Valley native, Los Gatan Chris Martin has, in his 33 years, seen it go "from apricot chips to Silicon chips." Being a fourth-generation South Bay resident, he says he's grown up knowing the area's history, thanks to the stories of his parents and grandparents.

It was this foundation that helped Martin, now co-owner of an independent film production company, make his own contribution to the record of the Valley's past: Broken Harts, a documentary on the November 1933 kidnapping and murder of Brooke Hart, an heir to the successful Hart's Department Store--along with the subsequent lynching of his kidnappers in downtown San Jose's St. James Park.

The film also delves into other facets of the incident, such as the social unrest causing lynchings nationwide during the Great Depression and the attempt by American Civil Liberties Union lawyers Abraham Lincoln Wirin and Ellis Jones to bring the vigilante mob's ringleaders to justice.

"It really hissed with hate!" is how Martin recalls his late grandmother--who was driving a block north of St. James Park at the time--describing the sound of the mob lynching John Holmes and Harold Thurmond.

Broken Harts is the topic for the Jan. 22 program of the Saratoga Foothill Club's 2001-'02 Public Lecture Series. The event will begin at 10 a.m. at the 20399 Park Place clubhouse. Martin will preview a trailer of his film and discuss how and why he made the documentary. He'll also answer audience questions.

"Chris always loved film and stories. My mother would tell him stories, so he grew up with historical roots," says his mother Nancy Martin, who follows another creative pursuit: photography. "It just so happened that my mother was friends with Brooke [Hart] when they were growing up."

"When my grandma told me that story, I was like 'Wow! Something like that really happened in San Jose?'" Nancy says of the incident.

Adding the Hart story to many others in his memory for later, Chris obtained a bachelor's degree in history from UC-Santa Cruz and then studied filmmaking at Brooks Institute of Photography in Santa Barbara.

A few years ago, he read Swift Justice: Murder and Vengeance in a California Town, a book by former Mercury News political reporter Harry Farrell that chronicles the Hart incident. Not only did Chris get interested in it again, but he also had a propitious meeting with none other than Alex Hart Jr.--Brooke Hart's youngest brother.

According to Chris, Alex had noticed him with a copy of Swift Justice in a Santa Cruz coffee shop and introduced himself. The two struck up a friendship, with Alex becoming a valuable source of background information for the film.

Martin, who now lives and works in San Francisco, combines his love of history and film with 400 Blows, the independent production company he cofounded with colleague Robert Poswall. The company does its own films, such as Martin's Broken Harts, as well as those for clients in the industry.

Although he doesn't think his film will be out until early 2003, citing both funding and time, Martin is already excited about the prospect of sharing it.

"I took the Hart story and used it to examine the history of the South Bay and what it was like then. I learned how tumultuous the area was during the Depression," Chris says. "I started out with just a little audiocassette recorder, interviewing people, many of them connections from my grandma."

Martin has since layered the interviews with archival news reels, old photographs--many lent by Saratoga historian Willys Peck--and facts and figures from Martin's own extensive research.

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Admission to the program is a $6 donation. For more information, call 408.867.9100 or 408.867.2361.

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