St. Patty’s Day Documentary: Belfast is Still a Divided City

In a recent anthropological lecture at UCLA an unnamed professor stated that colonialism is over, that somehow, somewhere all anti-colonial revolutions succeeded, or all colonials gave up because of cost or frustration. I was in the lecture hall and had already edited my antagonistic response. Here it is. Belfast is Still a Divided City is a documentary I shot and edited in 2008. It was broadcast on cable and satellite network Current TV in US, Ireland, UK, and Italy to 55 million viewers. No it is not observational or ethnographic but yes it is anthropological. Deal with it. Argue. It is surely slanted in favor of the Irish liberation movement. They were the ones who housed, fed, and gave me access. They became my friends. So access goes.

And so it also went in Palestine in 2009. The one’s who returned my rampant calls, emails, and door knocks were not the Israeli rabbis and politicians but the impoverished Palestinians. These shoots in Palestine and Northern Ireland are part of a documentary about divided cities around the world: Belfast, Jerusalem, Nicosia, Mostar, Berlin….LA. Usually the indigenous or minority population is more apt to take the gamble and work with uncredentialed mediamakers like me than the established powers who have mainstream print and TV media. These include the Palestinians in East Jerusalem, the Irish in Northern Ireland, and Latinos in LA. User generated content (UGC) nonfiction media is a weapon of the weak; economics, sanctions, barriers, primetime TV, state racism are the weapons of the strong.

On St. Patty’s Day, school yourself on the indigenous Irish sovereignty movement and the Protestant colonial activities by scoping my short doc.

Current’s blurb goes: “Ten years after the Good Friday Agreement, Northern Ireland maintains a relative calm. Despite a few isolated incidents, the fighting seems to have ended. But has this brought Protestant and Catholic groups closer together? In Belfast the two groups live in neighborhoods that are still physically separated by ‘peace walls.'”

Check it: Belfast is Still a Divided City: 90014381_belfast-is-still-a-city-divided.htm or http://current.com/items/90014381_belfast-is-still-a-city-divided.htm

Adam Fish

I am a cultural anthropologist and media studies scholar currently teaching and researching in the Sociology Department at Lancaster University, UK. I investigate media technologies, digital finance, and network activism. @mediacultures

One thought on “St. Patty’s Day Documentary: Belfast is Still a Divided City

  1. Well, the situation most certainly is ridiculous. However, the part of “independence” in Europe becomes less and less a matter of actual politics. Even if Northern Ireland would be part of the Republic of Ireland tomorrow, just about none of the laws would change, because most of everything comes from Bruxelles. In fact, right now they have their own pound bills. They would lose that and instead get the Euro.

    I went to Belfast myself about two years ago. I have some friends there who are ethnically protestant but quite fed up with the whole conflict. They really did not care whether the area would be turned over to Ireland or not. The real conflict seems not to be that, but the conflict between those who define themselves through and who get their power through the militia groups and the political apparatus, and those who would prefer to not have to deal with that.

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