The Image You Missed (2018) - full transcript

That means you're shooting.
No, you just push it once.

- Yeah, I've done that.
- Yeah. And if there's a red light on...

You're gonna see me.
I'm trying to see myself - ah, here I am.

I'm zooming in on myself.

Dear Arthur, I found these images on
an old videotape among your things,

a few months after your death.

Sometimes I envy that ability to grow up
inside all that... and not question it.

To maintain that strength.

He's been able to keep that image together.

I found the tape in your apartment,
clearing it out before it was sold.

A place I'd never entered
when you were alive.



In Paris, where you'd lived for many years.

An American, living in Paris,
making films about Ireland.

Belfast, Northern Ireland.

65 years after its creation, this tiny state
governed by London remains unstable.

The British forces have constantly
been opposed by the IRA,

the Irish Republican Army,
a clandestine military organization.

I sorted through your belongings:
photos, films, tapes, notebooks...

The entire life's work
of a man I didn't know.

This film is a brief voyage onto one side of
this conflict; that of the Irish nationalists.

This part of the city is patrolled and placed
under constant surveillance by the British army.

Nonetheless, West Belfast
remains an IRA stronghold.

11th March 1985 - Dear Maeve,

Felicitations as they say here. I must say if
I was shocked to get the news I got from you.

I wasn't really surprised,
mysteriously.



Once I heard your message
on the answering machine, I knew it.

I knew what you were to say when I called.

One of those premonitions I get
every now and again.

Suffice to say I'm really glad,
and I'm glad you're glad. Really.

As for being involved, recognized,
responsible, or who knows how to put it,

for our collective effort, as it were,
well yes I want to be.

But given my most precarious lifestyle,
I don't quite know how to go about it.

And for me, it's much too serious
to be discussed in letter writing,

especially since I'm not one
for writing letters.

So I think the wisest,
clearest thing for me to

do would be to pop over
and pay you a visit,

as soon as I've got the time
and cash to do so.

When that could be,
it's hard to say right now

but I'll ring or
write as soon as I know.

As I told you over the phone,

I'm currently in the midst of
preparing a short film for French TV,

after two months of haggling over important
questions of money & conditions.

It's once again another mission impossible,
a crazy, very difficult project.

It's hard to say how it will turn out.

Hope you're keeping well, in any event.

Take good care of yourself
and the little one in you.

I'll be thinking of you both; a lot.

Love, Arthur.

In 1997, I was making my first film
while you were making your last.

Luke, why don't you hold it
with your other arm?

Yeah, Luke, you shouldn't have your hand
there. You won't be able to zoom.

It started as a game to play with friends

...a way to create our own world.

You know you've got blood
all over your fingers.

Have I?

- Ok, now just angle on the door.
- This is record.

Charlie, stand here and let him take a photo.

It's alright, I got him.

Ah! Shit! Sorry, cut!

Your camera always looked out into
other people's worlds; never your own.

Filmmaking is nothing more than people
who find themselves in front of a camera

confronted by a filmmaker and
their own experiences.

In effect, they must have the courage
to account for their lives.

Where are you coming from?
What have you done? Why and how?

What was the motivation and sense
of your actions?

What were the consequences
for yourself and others?

...and I had been held for about
three days at the time,

and I had undergone
the usual torture

treatment, that is the
beating, the threats...

We called upon the British
government to recognize

the right of the Irish people
to decide the future of Ireland

and we called upon the
British government

to withdraw all their forces
by a specified date...

When a paratrooper stepped right
in front of my window

and fired a rubber bullet
directly into my face.

And that was in front of my young family.

Well I was taken to hospital and my eyes were
so badly damaged they had to be removed.

Wherever I am at any particular time,
I have a cover story.

Why I'm there: I'm working,
I'm on holidays...

I'd always have a reason to be in a
particular place at any time.

The broadcasting bill was brought in,
ironically enough, as part of a package.

One part of the package took away
the right to silence,

and the other part of the package
took away the right to free speech.

There's no right to silence here.

If you're being interrogated, you have
no right to silence.

These are the bullet holes.

The British government was not
going to give into

our demands until
there was death.

Anything the British dish up to me
propaganda-wise to label me as a terrorist

or as some sort of a maniac
for carrying a bomb,

just won't work. Because
this is a war situation.

Our strategy is that, through
the effective use of guerilla warfare,

we will eventually sap the political will of
the British government to remain in Ireland.

I had to look closely for any trace of your
image. Your voice was more of a presence...

Your voice was more of a presence...

They carry a certain knowledge that
cannot be ignored:

the smallest of things, the nucleus of the
atom, contains the greatest of energies

Such is the universe:
it is that way, and no other way.

In your photos, you were easier to find.

In your whole archive,
there were no images of me,

and only one of my mother.

She took the only photos of us together,
those few times you visited.

I'm piecing together an image of you
from these scraps.

A fiction of who you might have been.

I guess I've done this before.

In my twenties, I staged a young man's
encounter with his estranged father.

Around the time I was born,
you were working

on a script for a film that you
were never able to make.

You gave the main character my name.

Donal is 30 years old, Irish
and an important member of the IRA.

He's exuberant, with a playful sense of
humour despite his responsibilities.

But maybe that was just a coincidence.

In Dublin, around the corner
from where I grew up,

trains cross the Royal Canal
on their way to Belfast.

It seems you only ever filmed
one shot in this city.

It was the reverse shot of this image,
27 years ago.

It's only a two hour trip, but the first time

I travelled to Belfast was for your funeral.

Ireland for me had always been Dublin.
For you, Belfast.

Welcome to our battle of images!

An Irishman never speaks to the person
in front of him, but to an image!

It was just one-sided.

There wasn't anything about Bloody Sunday,
about Gibraltar, about the killings,

about the oppression, the non-jury courts,
I could go on and on...

Well this is basically just an answer,
telling our side of the story...

You came here first as a tourist.

But you kept coming back.

You would die here in the end, collapsing
from a pulmonary embolism on a street corner.

You're buried here now.

1st August 1985.

Chara Maeve,

Sorry for the long lapse.
I'm not one for writing letters.

I hope you're keeping well. I'm fine.
But I'm still in Paris, evidently.

Feeling a bit trapped and frustrated
as I'd love a little trip to Dublin.

A few things went wrong this past month.

The film was up for a prize that would
have meant a lot of money.

Only it didn't come through for reasons
that have been well-hidden somewhere

in the depths of the bureaucracy of
the Ministry of Culture.

Otherwise I was to get a job on a film
here as assistant director.

That too would have meant a lot of money,
only it didn't materialize.

Which is to say my finances are
in a shambles right now.

Nothing catastrophic, but still a pain in the
arse, and it definitely limits my movements.

So I'm not quite sure when I'll be
able to visit you...

It doesn't look promising, but then you
never know. So much for the bad news.

How was your trip to Belfast this time?

I imagine there was a bit more action
than when I was there.

I hope this little note
will make its way to you.

I'm glad to see your family has more or less
accepted your imminent motherhood.

Take care of yourself and the baba.
Much love, Arthur

Hello, Mr. MacCaig. I've seen your
films when I was a kid...

He never took responsibility for anything...

A quiet man, a man of few words...
I think his films actually speak for him...

- You're terrific.
- ... I'm not terrific. My films are!

...representing other people
and what they came through...

Ireland and I, it's a story that goes back
a long way... roughly 150 years.

My family was forced to leave the island
at the time of the Great Famine.

Like 1.5 million of their countrymen,

they managed to save themselves
by emigrating to the US.

I'm an Irish-American,
born in the working class area

of North Bergen, New Jersey,
just opposite Manhattan.

On the street, my friends were
"Micks", "Wops" and "Kikes"

and each of us kept a double pride: that of
our origins and that of being American.

In my family, there were workers,
cops, firefighters, nurses,

and they all spoke of Ireland and
the struggle against the English.

This dimension will draw together
Irish-American and Irish national opinion

and weave them into a tight rope
which we will string around Britain's neck

and hang that filthy
scumbag that has dared

to brutalize our country
for almost 800 years.

Bear in mind, we are all children
of the great Irish race.

We should be proud of our existence.

We have been scattered across
the world not as colonials,

not to ram our culture, our language down
the throats of indigenous peoples,

but as exiles driven unjustly
from our own homeland.

Wherever the Irish went, they were sure to
take up the cause of justice and democracy,

and that is exactly what
we must be proud of today.

We have never subjected anybody,

we have survived brutality
like no other race has.

That is why we are a hardy people.

We will never be broken,
our spirit will never be crushed-

I never shared this idea
of Irishness with you.

Never cared for the parades
or rituals or flags.

I always thought of myself as coming
from a place... not a nation.

Even if I was intimately linked, on my
mother's side, to that nation's birth.

My great-grandfather fought
in the 1916 Easter rising,

and was almost executed.

50 years later he took part in
the official commemorations.

My mother's uncle, Seán Brennan,
was there shooting.

The other filmmaker in the family.

Now we...

...are turning our backs to the past...

...only insofar as when we look round
from time to time, the past inspires us.

We have to look to the future.

For Seán and his father,
the revolution was long finished.

Now it was simply a matter of remembering.

In 1916, the IRA started the most important
uprising against British occupation.

The aim of the uprising, the creation of an
independent, united and socialist Republic.

By the early 1920s, the IRA's guerilla
campaign was making British rule untenable.

But Britain was able to save the situation

by imposing a compromise treaty
that resulted in the partition of the island.

This compromise succeeded in leaving
British imperialism with a permanent base

for the domination, not only of the North,
but of the whole of Ireland.

Partition divides the nation
as it divides the working class,

facilitating the political
control and economic

exploitation of the
North and the South,

where British investment
is even more important.

You preferred those who remembered
as a way of continuing the struggle.

This state is not the Republic
proclaimed in 1916!

Current efforts to pretend that it is
are an insult to the brave men who lie here.

Uncle Seán's eye was drawn
to other things.

Though the constitution
of the Irish Republic

lays claim to sovereignty
of the whole Island,

Dublin has always preferred
to ignore "the Troubles"

and chosen to give a free hand
to the British authorities.

Why is it I feel closer
to his work than to yours?

Since the partition of the country in 1921,
Ireland has limped through its history.

This double division, first of the nation,
and then the two communities in the North,

is a source of perpetual violence
which convulses the island.

Only reunification can bring
an end to the conflict.

Seán and I both left
Ireland for New York.

The opposite journey to you.

When Seán returned,
he did so as a tourist.

In 1968, on a road trip around Ireland,
he visited Derry, in the North.

1968.
The year before the conflict erupted.

Yet nothing of that here.
Nothing but sights.

At that point I was just curious to know
what was happening.

Like most people, I was completely ignorant

and it took a long time
before I could figure it out.

I spent some time in Belfast,
in Nationalist areas like Ardoyne.

That just blew my mind.

This was the first time I had really seen
the power of the mass struggle.

All the ideas I'd previously had
were shown to be completely false.

The people I met I hadn't seen
in newspapers or on television.

The basic divisions here were not religious,
but political and economic-

that is, the division
of the colonizer and the colonized.

The loyalists
controlled everything.

The police, the courts,
employment and housing.

And the nationalist minority were subjected
to systematic discrimination.

Well after 50 years of that,

they finally began to seize control of
their lives and their neighborhoods.

And I'd never seen anything like that.

It showed me how we can resist,
not only through our ideas,

but through how we live our lives.

The Republican movement have clearly outlined
their proposals for the future of Ireland.

In the new Ireland we envisage
self-governing communities,

that is the people on the
ground will have a say

in their lives and in
how their area is run.

They will have a dignity that the workers
have lacked for so long.

Those community councils will be
affiliated to regional councils

which will be under the direction
of provincial councils.

They will take into consideration the wishes
of the people from the ground

to the provincial governments
to the federal parliament...

Burn, burn, burn the bastard!

Since I was a teenager
I'd been interested in politics.

Seeking ways to engage.
Not sure how.

In New York, in my twenties,
I got involved in Occupy Wall Street,

and tried to film it.

But there were already
too many cameras, too many images.

What is fundamental is the content,

which is to say the people:
their images, their testimonies.

In the end, the form is there to advance
all that: it's there to serve the content.

Making formal exercises
doesn't interest me.

Our idea was to give
as much information as possible -

not too much, but as much as is possible
to handle in an hour and a half.

The necessary historical information.

There needs to be a plan! Otherwise...
we feed into their bullshit!

No military... has ever held power...
without order!

In a chaotic situation, you took a position.

I was always too concerned
with what was being left out.

I think the film is objective
in the real sense of the word,

in that it gets to the
root of the problem.

For me, the objective truth is the
historical truth of the situation

based on the experience
of the mass struggle.

It doesn't mean being neutral -
as if that's even possible.

You had been able to reach conclusions.

My narratives were partial, incomplete...

at risk of falling apart at any moment...

I've never been at ease with this.

I envied your assurance.

Your effortless naming of things.

For me, naming felt like blindness.

But, I also wanted to speak.

Seven soldiers have been
massacred in Country Tyrone.

They were blown up
when a car bomb exploded

as an army unmarked bus
ferried troops to their

base in Omagh. From the
scene, Gary Duffy.

There's a deep sense of shock
in the Ballygawley area,

following the blast which
claimed so many lives

The explosion, which
ripped apart the soldiers' bus

left a crater 12 foot
wide and six feet deep

MP for the area, William McCrea, says the
government just hasn't the will

to crush the terrorists.

Well, unreservedly I condemn such a vicious
and brutal slaughter of the innocent soldiers

and unfortunately the tragedy is this:
the British government,

has failed to take on the
Republican murder gangs

and stop them in their tracks!

MP Jim Kilfedder has called for
the impositon of martial law.

To think of those young
men being brought back

to their wives and their mothers
and their fathers...

You became a filmmaker
in solidarity with a community,

in opposition to a state - and a media -
that wouldn't represent it.

...the government's hands are stained
with the blood of the soldiers.

The explosion caused devastation.

A state which opposed your images too.

People told me I could never sell
my films to television, but I did.

At the time of The Patriot Game,
the British foreign minister issued a letter

to all their embassies.

He wrote that "while the film itself may have
technical merit which deserves recognition,

any awards would undoubtedly
enhance a production

which is damaging and highly critical
of Her Majesty's Government."

It was the best review I ever had.

You felt the strength of your images -
their ability to threaten.

...to show what is in reality
happening in Ireland.

To show what is certainly the most extensive,
determined working-class struggle...

I keep looking for what's not there.

No mention of the splits and feuds
within the nationalist movement,

or the failed struggles
against sectarianism.

No sense of your own
relationship with this world.

Instead: shot - reverse-shot.
Nothing in between.

You see the one picture and
no further, you know?

I take it you've all got
forms of identification, yes?

This is all for a documentary?

Any ID? Can we have some ID then?

It's not just that you and I see differently.

We belong to different times.

We came into cinema, and the world,
at different political moments.

Some find it unbelievable that British
democracy could have been responsible

for voting restrictions, laws of exception,
torture, internment, and so on.

If the British have been willing
to pay a high price in this war,

it is because for them
the stakes are even higher.

Their fears are genuine when
they talk of a "Cuba" or an "Angola"

being established off their coast.

You began when certain things
seemed possible;

when armed struggle was
an image you could believe in.

I begin in the wake of the failure of those
movements, the failure of those images,

with no clear way forward.

Look at the South. How we are
fictions of their nationalism.

If you get killed,
it'll be part of that story.

But what you're proposing is worse
than their lies: no story at all.

You don't seem to understand that
the idea is to break out of their fictions.

Reality isn't given;
you have to take it.

Interior, TV editing room, day.

As Jim Gaffney speaks he
is looking at the images

streaming by on the TV monitor
at high speed.

Suddenly he interrupts his editor.

"Can you stop there?
Just for a second."

"Yeah that's it. Let me
have another look at it."

The editor replies, "They're just
some cutaway images we haven't used."

We come upon the shot of a woman.
It is an extreme close up of her face.

Gaffney says, "Hold it. Can I see that again,
this time in slow motion?"

She is turning, turning very slowly,
her hair falling down upon her face.

The shot has an almost surreal beauty to it.

Gaffney is lost in it...
fascinated.

- Well aren't you somebody famous?
- I don't know, am I famous?

- Ah, don't be modest.
- Infamous.

What films have you made?

- What's her name?
- Who, hers? Ashley Joe.

Ah, look at her face.

11th October 1985.

Dear Maeve: Sorry for not writing sooner.

Thanks for your letter and photos,
a fine looking fella, that's for sure.

A big one too. I can see you had a lot
to carry around the past few months.

It must have been
quite an experience.

It's hard for me to
imagine, or appreciate.

Anyway, felicitations and well done.

I'm doing fine, on this side.
I finally got some work in French TV.

Nothing exciting, but by TV standards
it's all right, and the pay is good,

so I'll be able to reimburse
most of my many debts.

I'm not sure if there'll be anything
left over for a trip to Ireland though.

I'll let you know, as soon as I know.

I've also finally taken the plunge -

the serious plunge into the adventure
of making a fiction film.

Currently writing with a good friend,
a scenario for a romantic political thriller.

I've enclosed a rough draft
of the synopsis -

revolutionaries, cops, spies,
a journalist, a love story, etc.

It's exciting and fun.

I still love documentaries -
but the problem is,

no matter how good your film,
you don't get much respect,

commercially or critically.
Especially here in France.

No complaints though - I think
my documentaries are good, important films,

and the experience of making them
has been invaluable.

As for the rest,
I've got very thick skin.

I must run to get this in the mail.

Hopefully, after January when the film
is supposed to be finished,

I should have at least enough cash to hop
over to Dublin to see you and the baba.

Try not to work too hard; what with your job
and Sinn Fein and the little fella,

you've got a real balancing act.

Anyway, keep well,
and much love to yourself and Donal.

Art.

PS: I finally got hold of an English language
cassette of The Patriot Game,

which I'm sending by separate mail.

It's my small contribution
to Maeve, Donal and the movement.

That covers a lot of ground!

Don't waste it on me, honey!

June 1996.

Dear Art,

It is difficult to write
after our meeting in Paris.

The more I think about it,
the more upset and angry I feel

about your decision not to have any contact
with Donal over the past five or six years

because your wife did not want you
to have contact with past relationships.

I did not think I qualified as
a past "relationship" as such,

as we were more friends than lovers
over the years, but there you go.

What made it worse was
that you did not tell us.

If I knew before we went to Paris
what I know now,

I don't think I would have gone
and put Donal through that -

especially as it has increased
his expectations.

Before we went, he was very curious
about you and full of questions,

but he was not feeling as hurt and rejected
as he feels now that he knows

it was more of a conscious decision
on your part.

Now, it's up to you.

I'm not going to subject us to
another outing like that Thursday.

You either want to see him or you don't.

And if you do, you can make the effort.

So, over to you. Maeve.

You never did reply to her letter.

It was shortly after that trip to Paris,
my first time seeing you in years,

that I started making films.

As you probably know,
you're watching the Dan and Luke show.

And I bet you're wondering what the
cameraman looks like. Me too...

How the hell are ya?
Is this recording?

This is one of the best film producers
not only in Ireland, but in the world.

This is the man who created
documentary film.

That's true.

Are you news reporters?

Filmmakers.

What's the documentary going
to be about? Just this?

It'll be basically the
history of the Troubles.

Where's it gonna be?

In the statement, the IRA said
there was a complete cessation

of their military operations from
midnight tonight...

After 25 years of war, 3,500 dead
and 40,000 injured,

a peace process was finally set up.

IRA ceasefires opened
the door to peace.

Peace demands justice.
Justice demands freedom.

Because peace, freedom and justice
will bring fundamental change.

Making war is not difficult. Look around
the world at the scores of conflicts.

Making peace is difficult.

Sinn Fein is committed to
taking all of the guns.

The plastic bullet guns,
the British army guns,

the RUC guns,
and the loyalist guns.

We are committed to taking
them all permanently out of Irish politics.

And Sinn Fein is concerned to build
a lasting peace settlement

and a process of inclusive
dialogue and negotiations.

Despite all of the difficulties,

we are going to have freedom,
and justice, and peace in our country.

For over 20 years, much
of the British press

portrayed Gerry Adams,
the leader of Sinn Fein,

as a terrorist, a demon,
the godfather of violence.

Since he has opened the doors to peace,
many of these same journalists

pursue him like a superstar
and treat him like a statesman.

We didn't just mean unionists should do it.
We should all do it.

All of us should
decommission our mindsets

and all of us should call
a ceasefire in our heads...

They need to call
ceasefires in their heads...

decomission mindsets
which prevent dialogue.

It's only by looking forward,
by finding new language...

...and let's lead our people to the future.

Find new language and new words
to lead our people forward.

For the first time, the
nationalists were to participate

directly in the government
of Northern Ireland,

and former terrorists were
to become ministers.

You witnessed these changes.

You even seemed to change along with them.

For me, the peace process
is a near miracle.

It shows that we can find a
way out of these conflicts.

It's possible, but only if people
are willing to talk to each other.

A change in language, a change in images.

From guerrilla cinema to TV segment.

From revolutionary to politician.

From mask to makeup.

The solution is not to get rid of the Brits

and exchange one master for
another master, the Irish capitalist.

The solution to Ireland is the Irish people,
who can provide a solution -

and that solution will be found
only under a socialist system.

Here's a toast to you and me
for we were there!

We were there! We were there!

Two proud traditions are coming
together, in the harmonies of peace.

The Irish working class are
beginning to wake up.

Business confidence grows stronger,
and the promise of prosperity...

...a semblance of class consciousness
is beginning to emerge.

The Good Friday agreement is a sell-out
of Republicanism and Socialism.

...trade was the principle of liberty,
that made peace and keeps peace.

Although the physical manifestations
of the occupation in the North

are now gone, the cultural,
economic, sectarian

and social occupations
still remain.

Neo-liberalism is the new weapon
in Britain's arsenal...

The vision of a Northern Ireland where,
in the future, no-one cares

what religion or community
you were born into.

Where they ask not where
you came from, but who you are.

The spirit of reconciliation must
be rooted in all you do.

Filmmaking is nothing more than people
who find themselves in front of a camera

confronted by a filmmaker
and their own experiences.

In effect, they must have the courage
to account for their lives.

Where are you coming from?
What have you done? Why and how?

What was the motivation and
sense of your actions?

What were the consequences
for yourself and others?

We're gonna be on the TV!

Hiya French people! We live in...

Ya wee wimps!

What're ya lookin' at me for?

- Don't move! Get up! Get the hell up!
- Who the fuck do you think you are?

What are you doing in my house?

What were you doing in my house?

I love you!

New York Times: "Regardless
how one may feel about his politics,

it is a worthy and
well-made documentary."

The Guardian: "Extraordinary and moving.
Forcefully debunks the twin myths

that the IRA is a terrorist organization
fighting a religious war."

Il Giorno, an Italian newspaper:
"Tender and powerful."

Another newspaper:
"Informative, vivid and partisan."

And an English newspaper: "Captures the
raw spirit of Irish nationalist resistance

and shows what the British media
have steadfastly refused to show."

So Art was certainly a friend
of this struggle and of the Irish people...

Your mistake is just to look at it in
terms of whether it's true or false,

when it's really about
whether it's useful or not.

You can't do that. You
can't just go back

and organize real
events that happened

that had their own reality
in their own time,

and then arrange them into
some pattern that suits you.

But the work is to take hold
of the myth, to appropriate it.

And not be used by it
like our fathers were.

You're wrong. The past has its own power.
It feeds off people believing in it.

The more you focus on it,
the more reality it gains.

What are you saying?

That people should live in some kind of
vacuum without memory?

That is not what I said.

What I said was: The past is
a way of reading the present.

But it's only liberating if it opens you-

Well then there's no argument.
What are we arguing about?

You're talking about a false memory!

They Haven't Gone Away
You Know

I remember the last time we met.

It was on a summer's day
in the Latin Quarter,

three months before your death.

I hadn't seen you in eleven years,
since that last trip to Paris.

We met at the Jussieu metro station
and walked to a nearby café.

We sat for an hour and
talked about films.

It had been years since
you'd made your last one.

You said no-one wanted to fund a film
about peace in Northern Ireland.

I asked you if I could
take your image.

Afterwards, returning to the metro station,
we paused on a street corner.

I asked you if you had any regrets.

You paused and thought
about the question.

Then replied... "No."