History and Film: Documenting Ireland

(3 Credit Hours) · Undergraduate

In its manifold forms, from the newsreel to the ‘feature; film is a major source of evidence for, and an important influence upon, contemporary history, and a vivid means of bringing the recent past to life.The Historian and Film, Paul Smith ed. Cambridge University Press This course will examine how modern Irish history has been presented in both documentary and feature film from the silent era to the present day. It will interrogate the possibilities and pitfalls of history for film-makers and look at how Irish history has been presented to a mass audience through cinema and television. Films discussed will include Irish Destiny (1926), The Dawn (1936), Anne Devlin (1984), Michael Collins (1996), The Wind that Shakes the Barley (2003), Mise Eire (1959), Saoirse?/Freedom? (1961), Insurrection (1966) A Television History of Ireland, The Troubles (1981), Seachtar na Casca.