PAST EVENT: Belfast Film Festival

07 Apr 10 | Events

APRIL 29 2010 – 2PM

MAKING POLITICAL FILMS ABOUT THE NORTH: THEN AND NOW

The troubles in the North of Ireland have long been the subject of film-makers. The film-making landscape has changed over the years, as has the political landscape. Both self censorship and political censorship have been key factors in defining which films get made and which don’t. The panel will discuss selected issues relating to censorship — what forms of censorship influence the work being made? is there any difference to the types of films being made 30 years ago and now?

The panel will include:

Mark Cousins director of The First Movie, screening at the Belfast Film Festival, has a first class degree in Film and Media Studies and Fine Art from the University of Stirling. He has since lectured on film history, been published internationally and made documentary films on arts and political themes. A former Director of the Edinburgh Film Festival, he now presents Scene-by-Scene on BBC television, conducting career interviews with actors and directors including Martin Scorcese, Woody Allen, Roman Polanski, Shohei Imamura, Jack Lemmon, Sean Connery, Tom Hanks, Dennis Hopper, Kirk Douglas, Rod Steiger, Jeanne Moreau, Lauren Bacall, the Coen Brothers, Bernardo Bertolucci, David Cronenberg, David Lynch, Donald Sutherland, Ewan McGregor and Jayne Russell. He lives in Edinburgh, Scotland.

James Flynn commenced his career in the Irish film industry with John Boorman’s Merlin Films International as Head of Development having previously worked for the Investment Bank of Ireland. After working as Business Manager of the fledgling Irish Film Board, he, along with Juanita Wilson, established Metropolitan Film Productions Limited with the intention of making strong, independent and resonant films for the international market. In-house projects developed and produced by Metropolitan Films include H3 and Nora.

He established Octagon Films in 2002. Octagon developed and produced Inside I’m Dancing, written by Jeffrey Caine (Goldeneye, The Constant Gardener) and directed by Damien O’Donnell (East Is East, Heartlands). Produced in conjunction with Working Title/Universal, it won the Audience Award at the Edinburgh International Film Festival and was released in the UK and Ireland by Momentum Pictures in autumn ‘04. It was screened as Rory O’Shea Was Here at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival and subsequently released in the U.S. by Focus. He is currently jointly producing Neil Jordan’s Ondine, starring Colin Farrell, in West Cork this summer and this will be released internationally during the Summer and/or Autumn of 2009.

For more information please visit their website http://www.belfastfilmfestival.org

Ian Paisley Jr fined for refusal to reveal sources

30 Jun 09 | Index Index, minipost

Democratic Unionist Party politician Ian Paisley Jr has been ordered to pay a fine for contempt of court after his refusal to reveal the name of a prison officer who informed him of the destruction of files after the murder of loyalist paramilitary Billy Wright at the Maze prison in 1997.

Read more here

Suzanne Breen: decision has "major implications"

18 Jun 09 | Uncategorized

Suzanne Breen has won her right to withhold material from a police investigation in Northern Ireland after the court agreed with her that such action would be put her in the terrorist firing line.

Breen argued that not only was the hand over of such information a breach of journalistic confidentiality but it would also put her life in danger.

Today in Belfast’s Laganside Court the recorder, Mr Tom Burgess, concluded that the risk to her was “not just real and immediate” but also “continuing”.

Her legal team described his ruling as a landmark judgement in terms of press freedom in particular the protection of sources.

Joe Rice, a Belfast lawyer who has defended several reporters under similar pressure in Northern Ireland to disclose sources by the state and a number of public inquiries, said the significance of the judgment could not be underestimated.

Journalists operating in Northern Ireland are relieved that Suzanne Breen has won her case. The decision has major implications for other reporters here.

This not only includes correspondents who are under pressure from the state, principally the PSNI, but also from the range of public inquiries into a number of past crimes in the Troubles.

For instance, at least three correspondents have been subjected to the attempts by Blood Sunday Inquiry and the Billy Wright Inquiry to get them to hand over confidential material. When they refused, the legal teams acting for the inquiries have gone to court to force the journalists’ hand. At best, the reporters reluctant to reveal sources and confidential material to the inquiries face contempt of court charges.

The outcome of today’s case may have implications for them as well. And in addition for Ian Paisley Junior, the son of the Rev Ian Paisley, who is facing sanctions over his determination to protect sources. Paisley Junior will not disclose who leaked him details about the security regime inside the Maze prison at the time when Billy Wright, a loyalist killer, was murdered in the H-Blocks in December 1997. The DUP Assembly member, it should be remembered, is also trying to uphold the right of source protection and his case is as vital as the Breen case in terms of defending the free flow of information in a democracy. He goes to court on Monday week to find if his refusal to hand over sources and information to the Billy Wright Inquiry will either land him in jail or result in him paying a heavy fine.

Read the full judgment here