This powerful, elegiac documentary focuses on a monumental chronicle of 3,700 lives ended by violence in Northern Ireland
Few films released in 2019 have seemed as timely or as urgent as Lost Lives. Documentarists Michael Hewitt and Diarmuid Lavery have come up with an immensely powerful film about a remarkable artefact: a thumping chronicle written over seven years that stands as an obituary of 3,700 lives taken during the Troubles in Northern Ireland.
Hewitt and Lavery pull a scene-setting example from the book’s first pages: nine-year-old Patrick Rooney, killed in his bed by an Ruc bullet during a riot in August 1969. In the film’s final moments, they add the name of Lyra McKee, the journalist shot by dissident Republicans during rioting in April 2019. Entry by entry, the film constructs a sorrowful history of promise extinguished and offers a pointed reminder of what lurks behind any rollback of the Good Friday agreement.
Few films released in 2019 have seemed as timely or as urgent as Lost Lives. Documentarists Michael Hewitt and Diarmuid Lavery have come up with an immensely powerful film about a remarkable artefact: a thumping chronicle written over seven years that stands as an obituary of 3,700 lives taken during the Troubles in Northern Ireland.
Hewitt and Lavery pull a scene-setting example from the book’s first pages: nine-year-old Patrick Rooney, killed in his bed by an Ruc bullet during a riot in August 1969. In the film’s final moments, they add the name of Lyra McKee, the journalist shot by dissident Republicans during rioting in April 2019. Entry by entry, the film constructs a sorrowful history of promise extinguished and offers a pointed reminder of what lurks behind any rollback of the Good Friday agreement.
- 10/16/2019
- by Mike McCahill
- The Guardian - Film News
Footage from Dermot Lavery and Michael Hewitt’s “Lost Lives” offers a glimpse of some of the victims of the conflict in Northern Ireland, known in Britain and Ireland simply as “the Troubles.”
The nonfiction film has its world premiere at the London Film Festival on Thursday. It has a roster of big-name Irish actors narrating, including Kenneth Branagh, Adrian Dunbar, Brendan Gleeson, Susan Lynch and Liam Neeson.
The film project is based on the book of the same title, which was written over seven years by five journalists. They set out to record the circumstances of every single death in the conflict, which was formally ended by the 1998 Good Friday peace agreement, although violence has occasionally flared since. The book has 3,700 entries. The final one is for Lyra McKee, a journalist fatally shot in 2019.
Lavery and Hewitt describe the project not as a documentary but “a filmic response to the book.
The nonfiction film has its world premiere at the London Film Festival on Thursday. It has a roster of big-name Irish actors narrating, including Kenneth Branagh, Adrian Dunbar, Brendan Gleeson, Susan Lynch and Liam Neeson.
The film project is based on the book of the same title, which was written over seven years by five journalists. They set out to record the circumstances of every single death in the conflict, which was formally ended by the 1998 Good Friday peace agreement, although violence has occasionally flared since. The book has 3,700 entries. The final one is for Lyra McKee, a journalist fatally shot in 2019.
Lavery and Hewitt describe the project not as a documentary but “a filmic response to the book.
- 10/10/2019
- by Stewart Clarke
- Variety Film + TV
International and documentary competitions include The Skeleton Twins, ‘71 and The Look of Silence. A total of 17 world premieres secured for the festival, which has received a budget boost.
The 10th Zurich Film Festival (Sept 25 – Oct 5) has revealed its full line-up, which comprises 145 features – up from 122 last year – from 29 countries.
Co-director Nadja Schildknecht revealed a rise in budget for the festival as well as growth in anticipated guest numbers.
“This year, we expect some 500 guests (previous year 450) from around the world to accompany their films,” she said.
“And the budget has increased accordingly to CHF6.9m ($7.4m) (previous year CHF6.1m/$6.5m).”
As previously announced, Tate Taylor’s James Brown biopic Get On Up will open the festival on Sept 25. The closing film has yet to be revealed.
International competition
The International Feature Film Competition includes 14 titles, some of which have received critical acclaim at previous festivals such as Yann Demange’s action thriller ‘71, which debuted at the...
The 10th Zurich Film Festival (Sept 25 – Oct 5) has revealed its full line-up, which comprises 145 features – up from 122 last year – from 29 countries.
Co-director Nadja Schildknecht revealed a rise in budget for the festival as well as growth in anticipated guest numbers.
“This year, we expect some 500 guests (previous year 450) from around the world to accompany their films,” she said.
“And the budget has increased accordingly to CHF6.9m ($7.4m) (previous year CHF6.1m/$6.5m).”
As previously announced, Tate Taylor’s James Brown biopic Get On Up will open the festival on Sept 25. The closing film has yet to be revealed.
International competition
The International Feature Film Competition includes 14 titles, some of which have received critical acclaim at previous festivals such as Yann Demange’s action thriller ‘71, which debuted at the...
- 9/11/2014
- by michael.rosser@screendaily.com (Michael Rosser)
- ScreenDaily
Exclusive: The Works International boards racing doc and thriller.
Ahead of the Efm, The Works International has boarded sales on motorcycle racing documentary Road, narrated by Liam Neeson, and horror There are Monsters.
Road tells the story of ‘the most famous family in road motorcycle racing’, the Dunlops, experiencing the highs and lows of competing in one of the world¹s most dangerous motorsports.
Written, produced and directed by Diarmuid Lavery and Michael Hewitt, Road is a DoubleBand Films presentation in association with Generator Entertainment.
Jay Dahl’s debut There are Monsters, produced by Dahl and Bill Niven, follows a crew of film students on an innocent road trip who discover evidence of evil doppelgangers.
The film, currently in post, was produced with the participation of Telefilm Canada and Film and Creative Industries Nova Scotia, with the assistance of the Nova Scotia Film Industry Tax Credit and the Canadian Film or Video Production Tax Credit.
Swung, starring...
Ahead of the Efm, The Works International has boarded sales on motorcycle racing documentary Road, narrated by Liam Neeson, and horror There are Monsters.
Road tells the story of ‘the most famous family in road motorcycle racing’, the Dunlops, experiencing the highs and lows of competing in one of the world¹s most dangerous motorsports.
Written, produced and directed by Diarmuid Lavery and Michael Hewitt, Road is a DoubleBand Films presentation in association with Generator Entertainment.
Jay Dahl’s debut There are Monsters, produced by Dahl and Bill Niven, follows a crew of film students on an innocent road trip who discover evidence of evil doppelgangers.
The film, currently in post, was produced with the participation of Telefilm Canada and Film and Creative Industries Nova Scotia, with the assistance of the Nova Scotia Film Industry Tax Credit and the Canadian Film or Video Production Tax Credit.
Swung, starring...
- 2/6/2014
- by andreas.wiseman@screendaily.com (Andreas Wiseman)
- ScreenDaily
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