Documentary film and the public communication of historical knowledge in Northern Ireland
This AHRC supported knowledge transfer project involves collaboration between historian Dr. Fearghal McGarry & filmmaker Demond Bell around the making and exhibition of the feature length docu-drama film The Enigma of Frank Ryan.
The film is based on the published research of McGarry, whose biography of Frank Ryan was published by UCD Press in 2010, and explores the life of republican activist and International Brigade volunteer, Frank Ryan (1902-1944).
The project involves a series of festival screenings in Dublin and Belfast with accompanying workshop discussions and a website aimed to provide interpretative support for the public screenings and the television broadcast of the completed film (scheduled for autumn 2012 on TG4) .
While our film seeks to be attentive to the latest historical research on Ryan and Ireland during the Second World War, it draws upon the imaginative resources of the creative documentary to encourage an interrogation of history in a society where historical narrative is often divisive.
Working with our project partners, TG4, Belfast Exposed Gallery and the Belfast Film Festival, the project seeks to elaborate a model of good interdisciplinary practice to guide future collaborations between historians, film makers, broadcasters and their audience.