Margo Harkin
Artraker, 2014
CONFLICT AREA / COUNTRY OF REFERENCE: NORTHERN IRELAND
My documentary, ‘The Far Side of Revenge’, is my most recent in a body of work that chronicles the Northern Irish ‘Troubles’ from ‘12 Days in July’ (1997) to ‘Bloody Sunday – A Derry Diary’ (2010). A study on reconciliation, the documentary experiments with film language in a style that echoes my debut feature drama ‘Hush-A-Bye Baby‘ (1990). It features the work of dramatist Teya Sepinuck – a bomb disposal expert of troubled spirits – whose hybrid form of theatre puts real people at its core as they stage their own, often shocking, stories to the public. The film explores Teya’s engagement with a group of women from backgrounds and histories so diverse that it would be hard to imagine them sharing a space, let alone creating a public, cultural event together. Drawn from politically diverse backgrounds, the cast includes Kathleen, whose husband was blown up by the IRA in 1990 and Anne, a former member of the IRA, whose uncle was murdered by the British Army on Bloody Sunday in Derry in 1972. My aim is to deliver a penetrating insight into a process of creation where the pain of individual stories is counterbalanced by the joyful bond that develops between the women.
Margo Harkin,
The Far Side of Revenge
Digital Film, 00:57:31
2014
© Artraker CIC 2014