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New York, NY, USA - One of the greatest things about film festivals --- and in particular the Human Rights Watch Film Festival (that ran through June 23rd at the Film Society of Lincoln Center's Walter Reade Theater) --- is that audiences can meet filmmakers they might never get to meet under any other conditions. Even more striking is the opportunity to hear from a person who is the actual subject of the film being shown. When the Irish feature "Omagh" -- a telling of the worst bombing in the Northern Irish conflict and its aftermath -- had its premiere here, the committee chairman for those families who lost loved ones, Michael Gallagher (who lost his son in the bombing,) appeared in the place of the filmmakers to talk about his life and fight for the arrest and conviction of the killers. Rarely do you get to meet the person who has not only suffered such a loss but who has fought for justice when all the governments and officials involved preferred to not pursue the perpetrators. Gallagher spoke forcefully about his experience after the last screening.
G21: Are people surprised at your appearance after having seen you played by veteran actor Gerard McSorely -- they note you have more hair?
MG: Well people have sat there and watched the movie and then all of the sudden they're confronted by this guy who says he's a real person, so it's a challenge to the senses. "This can't be the real guy, because I just watched this story and I like this guy. This guy's stepping up on the stage, he's taller, he's got hair, and he's got glasses. He physically doesn't look the same." I think for a second that sort of stuns people's senses. But, once people get comfortable with that, then it's a very valuable opportunity for people to just watch the movie and be able to ask questions. I'm sure as they watch the movie many thoughts will be going through their mind: "I wonder how this happened?" or "Why did they do th at?" or "Is this true?" or "Did you really do that?"
G21: How has this film changed your life and people's interest in your effort to convict the bombers?
MG: It's changed because it's about our story, not just my own personal story, and the families' story is told much further than we could ever tell it, in many different languages. That's why the film was important. The most immediate way it has changed my life is that it has opened me up to other people I would never have the opportunity to meet.
G21: You're connecting to a much larger network.
MG: That's right. You know the funny thing about it was that we didn't plan it that way, but I think the subject matter was very relevant in the world that we live in today. You know, families here of 9/11, families of Madrid, families of Columbia, families of Israel, families all around the world can identify with what we have suffered. It's been a very sobering and pleasant experience to go around and meet these families. I think the amazing thing is, when we start talking, how many similarities there are. And I think, in the end, families only want answers. Families want to know, in whatever country they're in, that the authorities have done the most that they could do to prevent it.
G21: They're directly affected by the aftermath.
MG: The families are directly affected and have to live with that for the rest of their lives, but the businesspeople, the politicians, other people that are on the fringe or incidental to it get on with their lives. The families have to live with that forever. It's a life sentence for them.
G21: I'm sure that making a film about something that is real affected the filmmaking.
MG: It's not a fairytale. There's a lot of emotional issues involved and I know for the people directly involved in the film, it has impacted on their life. I'm not talking about the families, I'm talking about the actors and the production crew. They gave this film 110% and that's why it's won all the awards that it has won, because I think that shows in the film. I think it became more than a film. It became a passion for them and that was important also.
I sat down with scriptwriters, Paul Greengrass and Guy Hibbert and talked through all of the issues, but at the end of the day we had to take a leap of faith, hand it over, and leave editorial control to the filmmakers -- especially director Peter Travis -- because that's the way things work in the end. On the other hand, they had to take responsibility for the end product. In this case, it worked out very well. It couldn't have worked out better. I think it was a risky gamble. The first time we saw the film I sat in an audience of 60 people and every one of them had lost a member of their family. And if we had gone up and walked to the back of that room and said to the filmmaker, "Look, I'm sorry. You've got it wrong here," they would have known it. But, as it turned out, we were overwhelmed by how right they had got the film.
G21: It has to take in account all 30 people.
MG: That's right. When you decide to go down that bridge you are aware it's a very dangerous and difficult bridge to go. The easy way to do a film is to do a film about 9/11 and do maybe ten fictitious families then you'll not get any [bull] from anybody. That's the easy way to do it, but the difficult way is to actually engage the families and when you start to do that, that's when the problems start to arise.
The first time I remember I came upon filmmakers I didn't understand the industry. I didn't understand how it worked, but I had to accept that these people are professionals and they do know how it works. If they say, "we're doing this for a particular reason," for example in the beginning we had problems because we had done much more work in the five years than what was depicted in the film. But the filmmakers said, "to get to an audience in New York or Tokyo that never heard of the word "Omagh," never mind some of them may have never heard of Ireland." They have to tell the story in such a way that the person sitting in that audience last night can follow the story right through.
That's one of the things that families, when they get involved, they don't really understand the reason why things are done. But, if you stay with that exercise and work yourself through to the end, then that does work. I mean, what better endorsement can a film have than me standing up there last night and saying, "yes, the filmmakers have it right here?" That is the best endorsement.
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