Silent Grace + Panel: Pathfinders- Women’s Progress Through the Film Industry (15)

London Breeze is proud to present a 25th anniversary screening of Maeve Murphy's landmark debut feature, Silent Grace - a coming-of-age drama about women's resistance, which fought for and won its place in the 'cinema of The Troubles' canon.

The screening will be followed by a thirty-minute panel discussion about women filmmakers' progress through the industry, hosted by London Breeze associate, presenter, Charlotte Bogard Macleod, with guests: Maeve Murphy (Silent Grace/Beyond the Fire/Taking Stock); Amanda San Pantling (Miss Jobson/Songs of Redemption) and Louisa Connolly-Burnham (The Intimacy Coordinator/Sister Wives/Full Fat). Other guests tbc.

The event begins with a complimentary tea or coffee. Doors open at 10am for 10.30am screening  

About the Film:

Silent Grace film premiered at Galway Film Fleadh to great acclaim in 2001. It was selected to represent the UK at Cannes 2002 and nominated for the Conflict and Resolution Award at the Hamptons Film Festival USA that year, in association with Nobel Peace Laureates. Silent Grace was nominated for The Aisling Award and won the Soka Art Award. The film had a short UK/Irish cinema release in 2004 by Guerilla Films.

The film had a revival in 2017-2020 due to articles in The Irish Times starting with Emily Pines’ piece, “Stop force feeding us a male cultural history”, which highlighted how the women hunger strikers of Armagh prison had been written out of a huge moment of Anglo-Irish cultural/ history. Silent Grace had a high-profile premiere on Irish TV on 24th June 2017.

 

The Irish Times selected the film for their 50 Best Irish Films Ever Made list in 2020. In 2022, the BFI compared Silent Grace to Steve Mc Queens Hunger (2008) identifying it as an earlier film and about the rarely mentioned female prisoners.

Starring Orla Brady, Cathleen Bradley, Cara Seymour and Dawn Bradfield, Silent Grace is a coming-of-age fiction about the IRA women's  hunger strike and dirty protest. A gripping story of friendship and survival, solidarity and fighting spirit.

Armagh Prison 1980. Two prisoners - Aine, a young mouthy tearaway and outsider, and Eileen, a high-ranking Republican leader - are flung into the same cell. At first at odds with each other, an unlikely friendship forms. When Eileen embarks on hunger strike for her political beliefs, a life and death struggle emerges.

Silent Grace is a humanist film which values life. With the recent political hunger strikes in British prisons, the film continues to resonate.

“Brilliantly confounds expectations…kind of genius...magnificent...I urge you to seek it out.”  -Hot Press Critics Choice.                                                          

“The women’s performances make this film compelling.” -Metro Critics Choice.  

“Murphy’s poetic script and performances from Brady and Bradley helped it to soar. The Films reputation has steadily increased.” -The Irish Times

“Humane and compelling…profoundly humanist…reclaims the overlooked and undervalued story of the women prisoners significant campaign.” -IFI International 2021

“Landmark Troubles Drama….Powerful” -ICA/IFTUK 2024