Sección Oficial 2024
Few Can See
Frank Sweeney | 2024| 42'
SYNOPSIS
In the late 1980s, as violence continues in the north of Ireland, censorship is increasingly being enforced on British and Irish television. In response, broadcasters have entered into a blackout strike, occupying several stations and transmitting a programme bringing censored voices back onto the airwaves. 'Few Can See' examines the legacy of broadcast censorship of the conflict in the north of Ireland and political movements during this era. The project attempts to recreate material absent from state archives due to censorship, based on contemporary oral history interviews with people censored during this time period. Within a late 80s current affairs television format, actors verbatim re-enact edited transcripts from 18 oral history interviews, later dubbing their own performances. This technique is inspired by the use of actors to dub the voices of censored people during the conflict. The story is inspired by several blackout strikes which took place at broadcasters across Ireland and Britain in response to censorship. The film is primarily shot on vintage live broadcast tube cameras, resurrected for the production.
BIOGRAPHY
Frank Sweeney
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FRANK SWEENEY (Ireland) is an artist with a research based practice, using found material to approach questions of collective memory, experience and identity through film and sound. Recent work includes Few Can See, winner of the Tiger Shorts Competition at International Film Festival Rotterdam.
multimedia
Critical text
Restoring collective memory, which reveals unkonwn for political reasons is not an easy undertaking. And, shedding light on the blacked out stories is, from the start, the evident main purpose of Few Can See. Film setting: Northern Ireland, 1980's. A turning point to understanding the country's political history and the impact that broadcast censorship of the time would have in the creation of the breach in state archives. Winner of the Tiger Short Competition at the International Film Festival Rotterdam, Frank Sweeney's midlength film combines found material and fictional recreations together with contemporary oral history interviews questioning the concept of archive and, consequently, the concept of truth. In the form of a mockumentary, Sweeney recreates a broadcasting tv set and highlights the "de rigeur" role of media in the historical northern irish conflict. Aware of the impossibility to fill in all the blanks in the historical archive, the film maker's approach is close to a microstory. Empowering critic and bringing up a metacomment on times of propaganda he creates a sense of collective awareness that, as we all know, reveals mandatory in our present days. Daniela Urzola
Technical Sheet
Estreno en España |
Prod: Emma Coen.
Guion: Séan Finnan y Frank Sweeney.
Música: Morgan Buckley.
Edición: Michael Barwise y Frank Sweeney.
Foto: Gráinne Galvin.
Intérpretes: Jane Deasey, Janie Doherty, Domhnall Herdman, Gerard Kelly , Lauren Larkin, Matthew Malone.
