Mr. McArevey is a visionary headmaster at a Catholic primary school in one of the toughest neighborhoods of Belfast, Northern Ireland. He loves Elvis and teaches his students to connect with their feelings, while taking on the legacies of the “The Troubles.” In this exceptional portrait of a community still healing from trauma, we follow this educator extraordinaire as he uses Ancient Greek wisdom as an antidote for pessimism, violence, and historical despair.
Made in the Emerald Isle (2021)
‘Made in the Emerald Isle’ is a modern music documentary that addresses the ongoing struggles faced by Irish musicians in finding success here at home. Irish music and the artists behind it, although world-renowned, in many cases have stepped outside of the country in order to achieve success and notoriety. This documentary will explore the story of the Irish music industry through the eyes of Sam Wickens.
The Bloody Border (2020)
The painful story of Ireland and the Irish people, who struggled for centuries to free themselves from the tyrannical clutches of the British Empire; an epic tale of poverty, hunger, despair, violence and unyielding courage.
14 Days (2013)
Over fourteen days in March 1988, a sequence of traumatic events shook Northern Ireland to its core and shocked the world. But it was also 14 days that compelled one man, Redemptorist priest Fr Alec Reid, to find a way out of the deadly cycle of violence.
The Magic Box (2012)
A special live broadcast on both BBC and UTV, hosted by Eamonn Holmes, celebrating the best of Northern Ireland television over the past 60 years and marking the occasion of digital switchover.
Shooting the Darkness (2019)
The testimony of the men who unwittingly became war photographers on the streets of their own towns in Northern Ireland, when violence erupted around them. Instead of photographing weddings and celebrities, as they expected, they produced the images that crudely show the suffering of ordinary people between 1968 and 1998, the worst years of the conflict.
The Living Flame (1966)
Commemoration of the 1916 Easter Rising in Ireland, commissioned for its 50th anniversary.
Lyra (2022)
An emotive, intimate film on the life and death of acclaimed young Northern Irish journalist Lyra McKee, whose murder by the New IRA in April 2019 sent shockwaves across the world. Directed by her close friend Alison Millar, the film seeks answers to her senseless killing through Lyra’s own work and words.
Let Us Be Seen (2022)
How do feminist and queer identities operate in contemporary Belfast? Let Us Be Seen is a documentary film that presents the work and ideas of individuals on the ground in Belfast, who have campaigned tirelessly for change and continue to do so. On 21st October 2019, abortion was decriminalised and same-sex marriage legalised in Northern Ireland. This important law change however has shed light on more nuanced barriers facing people locally.
Voices from the Grave (2010)
The story of the Northern Ireland Troubles through the unflinching testimony of two men who played key roles on opposite sides of that bloody conflict. Nearly ten years ago the two paramilitary leaders told their stories on condition that they could never be revealed while they were still alive. The stories told by the Irish Republican Army's Brendan Hughes and Ulster Volunteer Force's David Ervine tell us of the motivations of the participants, the planning of campaigns of violence, the misery of a hunger strike, the tracking and killing of informers and the duplicity that ended a conflict that had lasted too long. It is also a narrative of the fate of combatants when their wars are over.
Chapter and Verse (2005)
Chapter and Verse is an experimental documentary that traces the image legacy of Northern Ireland's recent troubles via its contemporary landscapes. The camera roves with fierce curiosity amongst the Orange Order Parades, the raging 11th Night Bonfires of Belfast, the wall paintings of Londonderry, empty border-lands, murder-sites, cemeteries, home interiors, town and city streets whilst exploring how the troubles are both revealed and concealed by the Northern Irish landscape. Interviews with a mix of Northern Irish politicians, religious figures and victims of the troubles, including Rev. Ian Paisley and Bishop Emeritus of 'Derry Edward Daly, combine in a cinematic study of the complex effects of Northern Ireland's conflict history suspended in language.
Belfast's Victory in Vienna: A Footballing Odyssey (2022)
Presenter Holly Hamilton tells the feelgood story of the Glentoran team who left Belfast on a European football adventure just before the First World War to win the Vienna Cup, the first ever European Cup.
Daughters of the Troubles: Belfast Stories (1996)
The women of Belfast played a unique role in holding together their families and communities during the Troubles in Northern Ireland. Filmed during the fragile 17-month paramilitary cease-fire, Daughters of the Troubles: Belfast Stories looks at the challenges facing women trying to put their direct experience of grassroots problems on the agenda of the established political parties. Their strength, first exhibited on the community level, started to reach a wider public.
Unquiet Graves (2018)
This feature-length documentary investigates the role the British government played in the murder of over 120 civilians in Counties Armagh and Tyrone from July 1972 to 1978.
The Secret Peacemaker (2023)
The story of Father Alec Reid’s complex and controversial peace plan to bring an end to violence in Northern Ireland, which eventually led to the historic Good Friday Agreement.
The Rising of the Moon (2020)
Produced by MUBI, The Rising of the Moon is a video essay which explores the struggle for independence as it has been portrayed throughout the history of Irish cinema, from the rebellion of 1798 through to the 1920s war of independence and the Troubles in Northern Ireland. https://vimeo.com/473986546
DeLorean: Back from the Future (2021)
John Z DeLorean’s extraordinary and doomed attempt to build the sports car of the future in 1980s Northern Ireland is the stuff of legend. A buccaneering American entrepreneur, DeLorean had film star looks, a famous fashion model as a wife, and an enormous ego that drove him to rival the giants of the US car industry.
The Real Derry: Jamie-Lee O'Donnell (2022)
With warmth, wit and honesty, Derry Girls' Jamie-Lee O'Donnell reflects on her childhood experiences and discovers what life's like for young people growing up in Derry today.
This Is Not a Movie: Robert Fisk and the Politics of Truth (2019)
For more than forty years, British journalist Robert Fisk has reported on some of the most violent conflicts in the world, from Northern Ireland to the Middle East, always with his feet on the ground and a notebook in hand, travelling into landscapes devastated by war, ferreting out the facts and sending reports to the media he works for with the ambition of catching the interest of an audience of millions.
I Am Belfast (2016)
Belfast, it's a city that is changing, changing because the people are leaving? But one came back, a 10,000 year old woman who claims that she is the city itself.
Face Down (2023)
On the 27th of December 1973, a nightmare began for an entire family. On that night, a German businessman called Thomas Niedermayer was kidnapped from his home in Belfast. He was never seen alive again by his friends or family. He became one of the "disappeared", and it seemed that no-one knew what had happened to him.