2024 We realised the power

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“We realised the power of it”: Derry Film and Video Workshop

Sara Greavu & Ciara Phillips

Irish Museum of Modern Art
30 March - 22 September 2024

Credits: Unless otherwise indicated, all original documents, photographs and film footage from Derry Film and Video Workshop archive. Exhibition documentation by Ros Kavanagh.

Derry Film and Video Workshop (DFVW), also known as Derry Film and Video Collective (DVFC), was established in Derry in 1983, incorporated in 1984, and lasted until 1990. Collective members, at different points in time, included Anne Crilly, Margo Harkin, Trisha Ziff, Geraldine McGuiness, Jim Curran, Stephanie English, Tommy Collins, Therese Friel, Brendan McMenamin, and Jamie Dunbar, most of whom had no prior experience of filmmaking. They came together with a sense of urgency to make films addressing overlapping political tensions around gender, class, the Irish national question and legacies of British Imperialism.

“We realised the power of it” is part of a long-term, ongoing research process that has involved working with former members of the collective, their supporters, peers and fellow activists; helping to preserve, digitise, and archive video materials that only existed in their original analogue U-matic tape format, and working with an extensive document and image archive that was preserved by former collective member, Margo Harkin. “We realised the power of it“ shares material including raw footage, photographs, and archival documents that trace a partial history of the workshop and its practice.

See also:

Open the book at a different page: Derry Film and Video Workshop
Project Arts Center, Dublin
1 Dec. 2021 - 29 Jan. 2022

“We realised the power of it”: Derry Film and Video Workshop
EVA International, Limerick
24 Sept. - 14 Nov. 2021

Little did they know
Guest programme of 39th EVA International
Sept. 2020 - Nov. 2021

Installation views of “We realised the power of it”: Derry Film and Video Workshop at IMMA, 2024

Original photograph from Camerawork Derry archive

Selected documents from Derry Film and Video Workshop archive. Image on left from Camerawork Derry

Installation view of “We realised the power of it”: Derry Film and Video Workshop at IMMA, 2024

Anne Crilly researching images in the Linen Hall Library, unused rushes from the filming ofMother Ireland

L: Poster: “Derry Film & Video Presents the World Premiere of Mother Ireland” (1988)
R: excerpt from interview with Nell McCafferty in Mother Ireland (1988), researched and directed by Anne Crilly, produced by Derry Film and Video Workshop

Excerpt from interview with Pat Murphy in Mother Ireland (1988), researched and directed by Anne Crilly, produced by Derry Film and Video Workshop

Installation view of “We realised the power of it”: Derry Film and Video Workshop at IMMA, 2024

Wall: scanned Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) docket, detailing items seized in raids on the offices of Derry Film and Video Workshop, 1993
On screen: Rushes of interview with activist Mairéad Farrell, conducted by Anne Crilly, for the film Stop Strip Searching

Enlarged leaflet for the campaign opposing strip-searching, by An Phoblacht / Republican News Publicity leaflet for the film Stop Strip Searching

Poster for Planning film (1986)

On screen: Rushes of an interview with community activist and politician, Mary Nelis, conducted by Anne Crilly for In the National Interest?, a film directed by Chapter Community Video Workshop member Penny Stempel. Middle: Jim Curran and Vinny Cunningham taken covertly filming military/police presence in the Waterside area of Derry.

Installation view of “We realised the power of it”: Derry Film and Video Workshop at IMMA, 2024

On screen: Rushes of interview with Benadette Devlin McAliskey, conducted by Anne Crilly, for theMother Ireland film. Footage of Sheelagh-na-gigs stored in the basement of the National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin.

2025