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What is the Irish border to its inhabitants? A checkpoint? An opportunity for taking care of their neighbours despite their beliefs? A matter of identity? The Reel Borders shorts is a collection of four amateur short documentary films exploring the meaning of borders through archival collections filmed in Donegal and Derry. They portray people who lived during the Troubles, those who grew up post-Good Friday Agreement, and those from other countries with their own views on what borders represent. The Reel Borders Project is funded by the European Research Council (Starting Grant #948278), hosted at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB) and in partnership with the Nerve Centre, the Northern Ireland Screen’s Digital Film Archive, and the Irish Film Institute Archive.
I made this film as an attempt to deepen my understanding of border experiences. I spoke to people from different backgrounds, cultures, and religions, from Ireland, Palestine, Colombia, the United States and Turkey. The interviews, conducted in the border city of Derry, where I was born and raised, and in Berlin, a city with its own unique history of borders, where I now live, offered me polyvocal perspectives to contrast our Irish border with other views of what it means to live in a bordered world. - Gemma Gfeller, Director
- Runtime13 minutes
- DirectorGemma Gfeller
What is the Irish border to its inhabitants? A checkpoint? An opportunity for taking care of their neighbours despite their beliefs? A matter of identity? The Reel Borders shorts is a collection of four amateur short documentary films exploring the meaning of borders through archival collections filmed in Donegal and Derry. They portray people who lived during the Troubles, those who grew up post-Good Friday Agreement, and those from other countries with their own views on what borders represent. The Reel Borders Project is funded by the European Research Council (Starting Grant #948278), hosted at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB) and in partnership with the Nerve Centre, the Northern Ireland Screen’s Digital Film Archive, and the Irish Film Institute Archive.
I made this film as an attempt to deepen my understanding of border experiences. I spoke to people from different backgrounds, cultures, and religions, from Ireland, Palestine, Colombia, the United States and Turkey. The interviews, conducted in the border city of Derry, where I was born and raised, and in Berlin, a city with its own unique history of borders, where I now live, offered me polyvocal perspectives to contrast our Irish border with other views of what it means to live in a bordered world. - Gemma Gfeller, Director
- Runtime13 minutes
- DirectorGemma Gfeller
