A documentary on graffiti art in Derry has screened at the inaugural Hip Hop Film Festival in New York.
‘Together in Pieces’ screened on Saturday August 6th followed by a Q&A session with Co. Derry filmmakers Eileen Walsh and David Dryden of Foxwall Films, who traveled from Ireland to present the project.
The 25min project also screened at the Capital Irish Film Festival in Washington D.C. in March. It looks at Northern Ireland's changing political landscape through graffiti, slogans and murals. It was shot in Co. Derry with funding from the Community Relations Council.
It examines how political murals and slogans are prolonging the healing process in Northern Ireland and how they sit in a new wave of street art and graffiti.
Walsh, who produced the film, said that while it tackles issues about the conflict here, they wanted to take a fresh approach both in content and style.
“The way we have dealt with the whole idea of sectarianism - we have used graffiti and Hip Hop, which go together,” she said.
“That makes it very appealing to a youth audience. The kind of film we wanted to make was a modern film that would appeal to young people, not one that uses archive material from the Troubles. It’s all new footage and we were trying to do it in a different way from the kind of stuff we have been used to seeing about Northern Ireland.”
‘Together in Pieces’ is an effort to reflect the changes that have happened and are happening in Northern Ireland in recent years.
“Derry has come from being the birthplace of the Troubles, and now internationally Derry is seen almost as a world centre of peace and reconciliation,” Walsh said. “People are looking at us and what we are doing, but we still have a way to go.”
“It has been really well received overseas, even though we made it for a Northern Ireland audience. We are really excited about screening the film at this festival, and we are honoured as white people from Northern Ireland to have the film at a festival for Black film and music, especially in light of the political situation in the U.S. at the moment.”
