James Demo’s feature documentary is an intimate portrait of international peacemaker Padraig O’Malley, an Irish man who helps make peace for others but struggles to find it for himself. Padraig has worked in conflict resolution for over 40 years. Among his work O’Malley brought all the chief negotiators from the Northern Ireland conflict to meet Nelson Mandela in 1997 to learn from the South African experience. Martin McGuinness from Sinn Féin would call this “a groundbreaking moment” in the peace process leading up to the Good Friday Agreement.

The Peacemaker takes us from Padraig’s isolated life in Cambridge, Massachusetts to some of the most dangerous crisis zones on Earth – from Northern Ireland to Kosovo, Nigeria to Iraq – over five years – as he works a peacemaking model based on his recovery from addiction. We meet Padraig in the third act of his life in a race against time to find some kind of salvation for both the world and himself.

Awards:

Jury Award for the Nesnadny + Schwartz Documentary Competition at Cleveland International Film Festival, 2017
Special Jury Award for Vision and Storytelling at Florida Film Festival, 2017
Jury Award for Best Documentary at Middlebury New Filmmakers Festival, 2017
Rotary Service Above Self Award at Chagrin Documentary Film Festival, 2017