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Pulitzer Center Update September 18, 2018

'The Ballymurphy Precedent' Generates Critical Acclaim

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A memorial mural to the victims of the Ballymurphy massacre that reads, "The Ballymurphy Massacre August 1971 We demand the truth".
English

In The Ballymurphy Precedent, Collum Macrae probes the killings of 10 unarmed Catholics, including a...

A soldier shoots a gun during a scene in The Ballymurphy Precedent trailer. Image courtesy of Dartmouth Films. Ireland, 2018.
A soldier shoots a gun during a scene in The Ballymurphy Precedent trailer. Image courtesy of Dartmouth Films. Ireland, 2018.

In his new documentary film The Ballymurphy Precedent, Pulitzer Center grantee Callum Macrae pulls back the curtain on a tragic coverup in British-Irish history.  Just six months before the Bloody Sunday killings by the British Parachute Regiment in Derry, the same regiment was responsible for the targeted shooting, over three days, of 10 innocent Catholic civilians in the Ballymurphy housing estate in Belfast, Northern Ireland.  

The film premiered at the Sheffield Doc/Fest on June 11th, 2018, and has since been screened around the United Kingdom and Ireland to significant acclaim.  

"An astonishing documentary... urgent, angry, and moral, this is top tier film-making."  -Total Film

 "Impressive... shocking... a desperately sad film." -The Guardian

“Callum Macrae’s eye-opening new documentary… a searing account.”  -Daily Beast

"A powerful, shocking documentary.”  -The National

 In addition to generating critical reviews, the film has provoked emotional responses from viewers on social media.

A viewer reacts to The Ballymurphy Precedent. Image courtesy of Dartmouth Films. Ireland, 2018.
A viewer reacts to The Ballymurphy Precedent. Image courtesy of Dartmouth Films. Ireland, 2018.
A viewer reacts to The Ballymurphy Precedent​​​​​​​ on Twitter. Image courtesy of Dartmouth Films. Ireland, 2018.
A viewer reacts to The Ballymurphy Precedent on Twitter. Image courtesy of Dartmouth Films. Ireland, 2018.

In a piece for The Guardian, Macrae writes that "this is a story that needs to be told. Not just for the record, not just to help redress a terrible damage done to the victims and their families, but because the failure to acknowledge this history remains a block on Northern Ireland’s painful road to peace and reconciliation."

Hopefully, the film will bring together communities torn apart by the Troubles, and inspire a search for justice in truth. 

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