Film in the Troubles

This past Tuesday, Gareth Higgins spoke to us on the Role of Film in our studies. I was personally quite excited about this, being a Mass Media major. His talk was quite personal, with plenty of room for questions that we have. He emphasized the work of Neil Jordan as a great Irish screenwriter. His credits include Michael Collins, The Butcher Boy, Angel, and Breakfast on Pluto. He also works with Zero28, a group of people who “believe that faith, life and work need to connect with each other.” Higgins has often put himself out on the line in terms of his opinions, running against the flow of mainstream Protestantism in Northern Ireland to make a stand for peace, equality, and support for the arts. As many of the people that we have talked to, he laments the fact that, in terms of visual arts, the Protestants lag sorely behind the Catholics, with most of the filmmakers coming from a Catholic background, meaning that the representation of this conflict in the media is mostly one-sided. Unfortunately, it seems to me that this will remain the standard, as many Protestants resist participation in the media arts, seeing them as a primarily Catholic institution that they want no part of.

Movies suggested:
The Field
Michael Collins
Omagh
Angel
Breakfast on Pluto
The Butcher Boy
The Boxer
In America

For more information search for these titles at:
http://www.zero28.org