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[ Winner Prix Italia 2002 | International Emmy Nomination |
35MM Print |
| 'Sunday' Boycotts Haifa
| 'Sunday' Wins Irish Academy Award |
| 'Sunday' in Palestine ]
McGovern's 'SUNDAY'
Scoops 54th 'Prix Italia'
(21 September 02)
Charles McDougall's film 'SUNDAY' written by Jimmy McGovern and Co Produced by Derry's Gaslight Productions in association with Box TV for Channel 4 Television has won the coveted 'Prix Italia' award for 'Best Drama'. Gaslight's producers Stephen Gargan and Jim Keys who have just returned from the award ceremony in Sicily, were delighted and honoured to receive the award.
On hearing the news Jimmy McGovern said: "I am very pleased and proud on behalf of the people of Derry that the Prix Italia judges have awarded the prize to Sunday… I wanted to write a film that explained and showed the injustice of what happened on Bloody Sunday and in the weeks and months following - and I feel this prize is a recognition of that."
Established in 1948 Prix Italia is the oldest and most prestigious international broadcaster award granting body in the world. Its partners and permanent members are made up of 75 public and private radio and television companies, representing over 60 countries from five continents. It's prizes in the fields of drama, documentary, the "performing arts", contain the names of the writers, directors and producers who make up the history of international television, Film and the performing arts generally. These include: Ken Loach, Alan Clarke, Stephen Friers, Ingmar Bergman, Federico Fellini, and Samuel Beckett to name but a few.
This year's "TV drama" jury viewed 39 programmes entered by 34 different broadcasters, representing 25 countries. They felt that the standard was generally high and represented an interesting cross section of different political and social realities. Commenting on the winning film they said,
"'Sunday' proposes a human drama of great emotional impact, backed up by solid direction that sees beyond the specific conflict, to identify a value - justice - that is essential for co-existence and healthy relationships inside a constantly changing society, which is increasingly having to come to terms with the new and the different."
Speaking after receiving the award Gaslight's Stephen Gargan said: "The jury's reading of 'Sunday' was for us as important as receiving the award itself. To resolve what happened on Bloody Sunday is to re-establish belief in Justice, and it's this universal right which the film sought to portray." [Top
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McGOVERN'S 'SUNDAY'
NOMINATED FOR
INTERNATIONAL EMMY
30th INTERNATIONAL EMMY AWARD NOMINEES NAMED
Charles McDougall's film 'SUNDAY' written by Jimmy McGovern and Co Produced by Derry's Gaslight Productions in association with Box TV for Channel 4 Television has been nominated for an International Emmy. 'SUNDAY' is one of only four films nominated in the Best TV Movie/Mini Series category.
The nominees for the 2002 International Emmy Awards were recently announced in Cannes, France by The International Academy of Television Arts & Sciences. The winners will be revealed at the 30th International Emmy Awards Gala ceremony, in New York City on Monday, November 25, 2002.
On hearing the news Gaslight's Stephen Gargan said: "We are over the moon about this, given that we've just won 'Best Drama' at the European equivalent
'The Prix Italia' in September. So now to be nominated for an International Emmy as well really places 'SUNDAY' centre-stage. This international recognition ensures that our community's story, a story suppressed for 30 years is at last getting out there to the wider world."
On announcing the nominees Emmy chairman, Larry Gershman said. "The International TV Academy's core mission is to encourage and promote quality global programming from around the world. It is most gratifying to have this year's nominees, that represent the best of international television, coming from many diverse countries of the world."
THE NOMINEES FOR BEST TV MOVIE/MINI SERIES ARE:
Die Manns - Ein Jahrhundertroman (The Manns - Novel Of A Century)
Bavaria Film in cooperation with WDR/BR/NDR/Arte/ORF/SRG/SFDRS
(Germany)
Sunday
Gaslight Productions in association with Box TV for Channel 4
(UK)
The Enclave
Vara Broadcasting Organisation/All Yours Film Production
(Netherlands)
Perfect Strangers - Episodes 1 & 2
A Talkback Production for BBC2
(UK)
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'SUNDAY'
IN 35mm
A film by Charles McDougall
(A Gaslight Productions / Box TV Co-Production)
The Community Story Behind 'SUNDAY'
Initiated, researched and developed by Derry based Gaslight Productions, the film is testimony to the community process that created it. In telling the story of Bloody Sunday we needed to both acknowledge the many individual stories that make up the collective tragedy but at the same time allow for the emergence of key stories which would enable this collective tragedy to be told. All fourteen of the victim's families and all but three of the fourteen wounded were interviewed face to face by the writer Jimmy McGovern. By ensuring that, as much as possible SUNDAY was filmed in Derry and involved local actors in its telling, its making became the rare example of a community centrally involved in telling its own history.
The final result is a deeply authentic and powerful film that looks, feels and sounds Derry while still managing to strike a universal chord. In finding the artistic tools to communicate the specificity of the issues, the people and the place, Director Charles McDougall has poignantly revealed the collective tragedy that lies beneath the broad brushstrokes of history: the struggle of ordinary people against power.
The Community's Story Reaches Out
Given the significance of Bloody Sunday in shaping contemporary Irish/British history, it is already a significant achievement that 'SUNDAY' has been broadcast on British television and seen by 1.7 million people. Credit is due in no small part to Channel Four Television for their courage in commissioning the film. The quality of 'SUNDAY' however, takes it beyond a 'film for television' and while it is not Channel 4's business to promote its films theatrically, the film and the issue in our view merit world wide exposure.
To best enable this to happen Gaslight has now reedited SUNDAY and transferred it to 35mm. The production of a film print now allows Gaslight to submit SUNDAY at International Film festivals thereby ensuring that the Derry community's story reaches out beyond the confines of Ireland to every corner of the world.
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'SUNDAY' Film to Boycott Israeli Festival
Derry based Gaslight Productions, the driving force behind Channel 4's drama documentary film 'SUNDAY' about the events of Bloody Sunday, is the latest cultural organisation to join the international boycott of Israel. 'SUNDAY' was selected for the prestigious Haifa International Film Festival, which opens tomorrow, Saturday 21st September in Israel.
Stephen Gargan of Gaslight said, "We are withdrawing our film in support of the boycott and to alert people in Ireland and Britain to the crimes against humanity daily being perpetrated by Israel on the Palestinian people."
He continued, "When 'SUNDAY' was first selected by Haifa, we were faced with a dilemma. Should we screen the film in the knowledge that the parallels between the Bogside in 1972 and Palestine today were strikingly obvious and therefore the film had the real chance of provoking debate within Israel about its government's actions? Or should we join the call for an international cultural boycott? When we fully realised that, as with the ANC in South Africa and their Anti-Apartheid boycott, it was Palestinians themselves that were leading the call for the world to boycott Israel, we knew that the just course of action was to support the boycott."
Anyone who saw John Pilger's documentary 'Palestine Is Still The Issue' (ITV, Monday 16th) will be in no doubt as to the extent of the injustices that the whole population there is forced to endure. Yet while all the current media attention is focused on Saddam Hussein's flouting of UN Resolutions, there are sadly too few media voices drawing attention to the daily implications for Palestine of Israel's flouting of UN Resolutions 242 and 338 which call on them to withdraw from the occupied territories and respect the right of Palestine to exist as an independent state.
Now under the guise of the 'war on terror', Israel has set itself on a course of destruction that will render Palestinian national and cultural existence on Palestinian land untenable. This intension is manifest in the systematic destruction of family homes, utilities, cultural/art centres, and even archaeological and cultural heritage sites.
The letter of withdrawal addressed to the festival director states:
, "…of the many lessons that flow from the story of Bloody Sunday, key among them is the ethical political and long-term military folly of governments attempting to impose military solutions on civil and human rights problems."
"We take this action in support of the Palestinian people and in solidarity with Palestinian artists and filmmakers. It is also done in solidarity with those within Israel (both Israelis and Arabs) who are speaking out and acting (e.g. refuseniks) against the government's murderous policies against the Palestinian people."
"Clearly the challenge of turning around current [ Israeli ] government policy in the climate created by a compliant Israeli media puts enormous responsibility on cultural actors/institutions within Israel. We hope however that people will somehow find the courage to act and to do what they can."
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Academy Award for 'SUNDAY'
(Friday 17th January 03)
Gaslight Productions' 'SUNDAY' written by Jimmy McGovern for Channel 4 Television has scooped the coveted 'Best Single Television Drama' at Irish Film and Television Academy Awards ceremony held in Belfast on Friday last. It was up against the cream of Irish television drama north and south of the border. This is the third major award for the locally produced film. It first won the prestigious 'Prix Italia' award for 'Best European Television Drama' and subsequently won nomination for an International Emmy.
Jim Keys, who was Executive Producer on 'SUNDAY' travelled to Belfast for the Award ceremony with Leo Young whose brother John was one of the 14 Derry people murdered that day. Leo is himself depicted in the film and played by Tyrone man Ciaran McMenimen. It was the Young family story that became the vehicle for conveying the family/community story of the day and its aftermath.
Commenting on the latest award Jim Keys said, "It was a great honour to accept the award not just on behalf of the production but on behalf of the families of the victims, the wounded and the wider Derry community. I think the film has been so successful because in touching a universal chord it creates an emotional bridge for people to understand the significance of Bloody Sunday not just for us but for the cause of justice internationally. We made it to support the families campaign for truth and justice. This award, in putting focus on the film, can only help to keep the focus on the Saville Inquiry. We are all delighted. Of course it was amazing to win the 'Prix Italia' and the 'Emmy' nomination but to be honoured by the IFTA is for us no less significant."
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'SUNDAY'
IN PALESTINE
Jimmy McGovern's film 'SUNDAY' to screen at the
Al Kasaba Theatre, Ramallah, Palestine.
Next Sunday 23rd March will see Derry based company Gaslight Productions film 'Sunday' open in Ramallah, Palestine. Since it screened on Channel 4 Television in January 02, the film has won several prestigious accolades for its depiction of the devastation visited on Derry on Bloody Sunday by the British Army. These include: 'Prix Italia' for Best Drama, 'International Emmy' nomination, also for Best Drama and 'SUNDAY' recently won the Irish Film Television Academy (IFTA) award for Best Single Drama.
Speaking about the timing of the film's screening in Palestine, Gaslight's Stephen Gargan said: "We are really honoured to have the opportunity to screen 'SUNDAY' in Palestine. The screening was organised a number months ago before the situation there further deteriorated but in a sense its timing is even more poignant now." Gargan commented. " The depiction of brutal military force in the film will be all too familiar to a Palestinian audience. 'SUNDAY' in our view strikes a universal chord in its portrayal of human rights abuse and adds its voice to the ongoing struggle for truth and justice internationally. If you think about it the frontline is always shifting, in 1972 for us it was the Bogside but for many in Derry today it is in places like Ramallah, Jenin and Bethlehem. The film's potential lies in its ability to bridge the two communities experience."
Gargan also commented. "What might also be of interest to a Palestinian audience as the armies of Britain and America struggle to portray themselves as liberators and protectors of the Iraqi people is to gain an insight into the cold reality of Britain's 'peace keeping' role in Derry on 30th January 1972."
'SUNDAY' opens in Ramallah, Palestine on Sunday 23rd March 03.
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