Guth Gafa Documentary Festival 2008

Special Radharc Screenings:
Our Debt to the Amerindians
Ireland/Bolivia/Peru, 1992, 26 min
Director: Joe Dunn
The Restless Knives
Ireland/Philippines, 1968, 27 min
Director: Peter Dunn

Sun 18th • Óstán Loch Altan • 12:00pm

The Radharc Trust is an independent charitable organisation working to promote high standards in the media in Ireland.
In the late 50s, amongst all the debate about what new television should consist of, the Archbishop of Dublin at the time, John Charles McQuaid thought that priests should learn about television so they could advise the broadcasters. Two priests were sent to New York to learn about TV - Fr. Des Forrestal and the late Fr. Joe Dunn.
On their return to Ireland, Joe Dunn and some colleagues made a couple of experimental films on religious topics. The films were called Radharc.
So began one of the most unusual relationships in Irish broadcasting. So too began Ireland's first independent television production unit.
The Radharc Archive contains about 420 films, frequently following the activities of Irish missionaries abroad. This international dimension of the Radharc played its part in generating awareness and interest among Irish people in justice and peace issues around the world.

Our Debt to the Amerindians
In the time of the Spanish conquest, the native peoples of America saved millions of lives in Europe with their agricultural wealth and medical knowledge. The debt has never been repaid.

The Restless Knives
In 1984 Fr. Niall O'Brien was imprisoned in the Philippines and later expelled because of his work championing the sugar cane workers in Negros, Philippines. This film made with Fr. O'Brien in 1966 shows the conditions in which people lived and worked at the time.