Film on women's cross-border Troubles football team to get Inishowen screening

A documentary about a group of young women from Donegal and Tyrone who formed a cross-border football team in 1979 is to be screened in Clonmany later this month.

Crossing Lines, directed by Margaret Gordon, is about a group of teenage girls from Ballybofey, Sion Mills, Strabane and Newtownstewart whose love of football saw them form a team together. Margaret is involved in Finn Harps Football Club today.

The documentary is to be screened at the Disappear Here Film Club, which takes place monthly in Clonmany.

The film club has announced the lineup for its November Film Club on Saturday, November 25.

The film club is funded by Concern Worldwide in partnership with ChangeMakers Donegal at Inishowen Development Partnership and Disappear Here Film Festival to encourage local people to think globally inspired by documentary and feature films.

After the success of a community event earlier this month - where the Film Club hosted the Irish Film Institute to showcase archival footage of Donegal and local people saw themselves on screen - the Film Club is continuing with a similar approach this November. The Disappear Here Film Club will present six short documentary films made by non-professional filmmakers from Donegal, Derry, and North Africa. These films last under one hour in total and will be followed by a short panel discussion.

“We are pleased to present a series of films by the Reel Border Project in Brussels, as part of our partnership Disappear Here Film Club. These captivating films, created by amateur filmmakers from Donegal and Derry, offer an opportunity to reflect on the current border situation, especially with regards to Brexit and the upcoming phase of Peace funding.

In addition, the screening will feature two films set in North Africa, which will encourage us in Donegal to contemplate the daily lives of others who live near Borders around the world, especially now, amidst rising immigration rates, as well as the devastating impact of war and climate change,” said Myra McAuliffe, the Project Coordinator of ChangeMakers Donegal at Inishowen Development Partnership.

The films include: Derry, the Oak Grove by Molly Phillips and Tom Hannigan; a lyrical essay film about Derry featuring current and archival footage; Triang Times by Emer O’Shea, Manus Brennan, and Michael McMonagle focuses on the lives of two people - a Unionist and one Nationalist, who have spent a lifetime stepping outside their cultural boundaries to make Pettigo a better place to live; Connecting Borders, directed by Derry-born Gemma Gfeller, features interviews with people from different backgrounds, cultures, and religions, from Ireland, Palestine, Colombia, the United States, and Turkey, and examines what it means to live in a bordered world.

The films were made during a filmmaking programme facilitated by the Nerve Centre, Derry, in collaboration with The Reel Borders Project based in Vrije Universiteit Brussels.

Universality of Border Life

Alongside the Donegal/Derry-based films, the club will also show two films from North Africa to highlight the universality of border life and the connection between the local and the global dimension, in keeping with the work of ChangeMakers Donegal and the Film Club funder, Concern Worldwide.

Frontera (Borderland) (7 minutes) is a short film narrated by Lakbira Ijamai. It tells the story of cross-border workers and what they will do when the border between Spain and Morocco is closed due to Covid-19.

Quiero/I Want (2.5 minutes) features a voiceover from an undocumented migrant worker in Ceuta, on the border with Morocco. It explores the young mother’s dream for the future.

These short films are the result of a three-month participatory filmmaking workshop by Reel Borders with Moroccan cross-border women who are living and working irregularly in Ceuta, a Spanish enclave bordering Morocco. The workshop was hosted by the local NGO Digmun, the Association for the Dignity of Women and Children of Ceuta, which offers language literacy and legal support.

Reel Borders Shorts - Short Films from Ireland and North Africa - will be screened on Saturday, November 25 at 2.00pm at Market House Clonmany above the Market House Café run by Clonmany Community Centre.

The six short films will be followed by a brief post-show panel discussion featuring some of the filmmakers and producer, Diana Cheung The event is free thanks to the Reel Borders Project.