‘Blood Fruit’, winner of Best Irish Feature Documentary at the Galway Film Fleadh 2014 will embark on a four screening tour in New York and Washington beginning May 25th through to 29th.
Two of the strikers, Mary Manning and Karen Gearon have been invited to travel to the US along with the director of ‘Blood Fruit’, Sinead O’Brien. Screenings will be held at venues including the AFI Silver Springs Theatre DC, the Irish Arts Center New York with a further screening to be hosted by the South African Washington International Program and the Niall Mellon Trust US at the esteemed Burke Theatre in DC. All followed by a Q&A and reception.
Speaking about the US tour filmmaker Sinead O’Brien explains: ‘We showed at CIFF in DC in February and had an extraordinary response from the US audience. Since then, the invites for ‘Blood Fruit’ to return to the US have flooded in.’
Mary Manning said: ‘While no one in power in Ireland supported the strike we had huge support from the US. We were invited to speak at the United Nations and both Edward Kennedy and Jesse Jackson were very vocal in their support for us, so to return to the US all these years later will be incredible.’
Programmer for the AFI Silver Springs Theatre Josh Gardner says: ‘We are delighted that Karen Gearon and Mary Manning, who is widely considered to be the ‘Rosa Parks of Ireland’, is travelling to the US with ‘Blood Fruit’. The action they took was unparalleled and inspirational, and at time when race relations in the US is at an all-time low the showing of this exceptional film could not be more relevant to an American audience.’
‘Blood Fruit’ was produced by Ferndale Films and received support from the BAI Sound and Vision scheme and from the Irish Film Board.
