Markers: Films that make their mark by pushing the boundaries of documentary
Filmmaker Mariah Garnett uses film to reconnect with and recreate the father she hasn’t seen since she was two years old. Reunited at his home in Vienna, he shares with her how he grew up in Belfast at the height of the Troubles. As a Protestant, David’s relationship with a Catholic girl was so taboo it was featured in a 1971 BBC news story at the time. Garnett surprises David with this footage, and as father and daughter watch the film together, he reveals how this broadcast forced him to flee Ireland, never to return. These new truths lead her to travel to Belfast alone, where she literally takes his place. Casting an actor as David’s girlfriend and herself as her father, then restaging the newsreel shot-for-shot, Garnett performs his past as her own in this masterfully playful take on history and identity. Myrocia Watamaniuk
MEDIA COVERAGE