Laurence McKeown

Premio Letterature dal Fronte, “H3″ by Les Blair screened in Cassino

Redazione IFF News , , ,
Susanna Pellis (Irish Film Festa director), Laurence McKeown and Silvia Calamati
Susanna Pellis (direttore Irish Film Festa), Laurence McKeown e Silvia Calamati

Il diario di Bobby Sands. Storia di un ragazzo irlandese (Bobby Sand’s Diary. The Story of an Irish Boy) written by Silvia Calamati, Laurence McKeown and Denis O’Hearn, published by Castelvecchi, has been awarded with the Premio internazionale Città di Cassino 2013 assigned by Letterature dal fronte Association.

The award is held to «gather, examine, value and reward one or more authors telling stories, facts and testimonies from war zones».

The book by Calamati, McKeown and Denis O’Hearn is about Bobby Sands, the Irish republican prisoner who died on hunger strike in 1981, at the age of 27, in Long Kesh prison.

In occasion of the award ceremony, H3 by Les Blair was screened in Cassino with the collaboration of Irish Film Festa, which also provided the subtitles for it. Laurence McKeown himself, one of the Long Kesh hunger strikers, worked on the script of H3.

Bobby Sands’ life was recently brought on screen also by Steve McQueen’s Hunger (2008), in which Sands was played by Michael Fassbender.

Info letteraturedalfrontecassino.it

LIFE AS AN INTERFACE – Special Screening

Redazione IFF News , , , ,

Thursday December 6th at 5.30pm, in the Kodak screening room, there will be a special screening of the documentary Life as an Interface, original version without subtitles. The Director Laurence McKeown will be at the screening. Introduction by the journalist Silvia Calamati.

Life as an Interface is a documentary feature on the Skegoneill Glandore Common Purpose Project, devoted to creating social and economic common ground for the residents of two bordering zones of North Belfast, respectively with a unionist and a nationalist majority. Even though there is no physical detachment between the two communities, neglect and degradation mark these urban settlements.

 The SGCP Project is kept alive by volunteers and its aim is the enhancement of this area through creative arts, fostering mutual awareness and closer contact among the residents.

 The SGCP president is the North-American Callie Persic: now living in the area herself, she has been working for years with Belfast communities. Vice President is a former loyalist prisoner, and one of the staff members, a Long Kesh former prisoner as well, belongs to the nationalist community.

Laurence McKeown is a North Irish writer, playwright and screenwriter. A former Republican prisoner with Bobby Sands, Laurence took part in the famous 1981 hunger strike at Long Kesh, refusing food for 70 days. Life as an interface is his first work as a director.

Silvia Calamati, writer, journalist and Rainews24 contributor, is the author of the books “Il diario di Bobby Sands” (with McKeown and Denis O’Hearn) and “Qui Belfast. Storia contemporanea della guerra in Irlanda del Nord” (Red Star Press, 2012).