Director: FRANK SWEENEY
42 mins, Ireland, 2023, Digital
In this bold reimagining of Irish broadcast history, artist Frank Sweeney explores the legacy of Irish and British censorship of the conflict in the north of Ireland. His project attempts to recreate material absent from state archives due to censorship, based on contemporary oral history interviews from the late 1980s and weaving in sequences demonstrating the political engagement of a range of activist groups such as Gays Against Imperialism and Gay Health Action. In a technique inspired by the British Government’s Broadcasting Ban, which banned loyalist and republican paramilitary groups from the airwaves but was circumvented when actors stepped in and dubbed their voices, Few Can See recreates a late ‘80s current affairs television format and invites actors to re-enact edited transcripts from 18 oral history interviews, later dubbing their own performances.
Followed by a Q&A with Frank Sweeney and Betty Purcell hosted by film critic Ruairí McCann.