MRS ROBINSON
Thursday, February 27 • 7:00 PM • T1
Q&A with President Mary Robinson moderated by author, Caitríona Palmer | Welcome by Ambassador of Ireland to the United States, Geraldine Byrne Nason. Post-screening reception sponsored by the Embassy of Ireland, Washington, D.C.
Documentary Feature | East Coast Premiere | Award Winning Woman Director | Guest Reception
Screening generously sponsored by Colette and Barry Breen
A pioneering constitutional lawyer, the first female President of Ireland, a UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and the Chair of The Elders; iconic change-maker Mary Robinson has led an inspirational life of human rights activism. But at the age of 80, she is taking on the biggest battle of her life; the fight to avert climate catastrophe. MRS ROBINSON tracks tectonic shifts in personal, political and social values over a period of 50 years as it tells a cinematic story of epic battles for equality: in the courts, at the ballot box, and on the streets.
MRS ROBINSON was directed by Aoife Kelleher and produced by Cormac Hargaden and Trisha Canning for Loosehorse. Executive Producers on the film include Pat Mitchell (co-founder of Project Dandelion), Geralyn Dreyfous, Lyn Davis Lear, Regina K. Scully, Ruth Ann Harnisch, and Melony Lewis. The film was funded by Fís Éireann/Screen Ireland and the Fiscal Sponsorship programme of the Utah Film Center.
Irish band Saint Sister (songwriter Morgan MacIntyre and harpist/composer Gemma Doherty) joined forces with Bono to record a special version of the song ‘Women of the World’ for the film’s soundtrack.
CREDITS
Director: Aoife Kelleher
Producers: Trisha Canning & Cormac Hargaden
Cast: Mary Robinson
Cinematographer: Matthew Kirrane
Score: Ray Harman & Hugh Rodgers
Ireland, 2024, color, 94 min. NOT RATED.
QUOTES
"A Crusader for women and those without a voice"
- Barack Obama
"Champion of women and children across the globe"
- Nelson Mandela
"I was elected by the women of Ireland, who instead of rocking the cradle, rocked the system."
- Mary Robinson
🎟 For further information regarding bookings:
Please call 301-495-6720 between M-F, 9 AM - 5:30 PM or email silverinfo@AFI.com
Read President Robinson's Book with our Non-Fiction Group:
Climate Justice: Hope, Resilience, and the Fight for a Sustainable Future
Our March nonfiction book group meets on Monday, March 24th at 6:30pm via Zoom. As a partner event with CIFF 2025, the book group will be attending the opening night screening of MRS ROBINSON before reading and discussing her 2018 book, Climate Justice: Hope, Resilience, and the Fight for a Sustainable Future at their gathering at the end of the month. Please join us in our discussion of this urgent call to arms by one of the most important voices in the international fight against climate change, who shares inspiring stories and offers vital lessons for the path forward.
A reforming constitutional lawyer and senator in her early career, Mary Robinson detonated an electoral earthquake by winning the Irish Presidential vote in 1990. She is President of the Mary Robinson Foundation - Climate Justice. She served in two capacities as the pioneering United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and United Nations Secretary-General’s Special Envoy on Climate Change. She is the former President of Ireland, the former Chair of The Elders and is co-founder of Project Dandelion - the global women-led campaign for climate justice. She has been awarded the U.S. Presidential Medal of Freedom and the 2019 Charleston John Maynard Keynes Prize.
Author of the bestselling memoir, An Affair with my Mother: A Story of Adoption, Secrecy and Love (Penguin, 2016). Caitríona Palmer's recent bestselling book, Climate Justice (Bloomsbury, 2018), co-written with former President of Ireland and UN Special Envoy on Climate Change, Mary Robinson, was short-listed for the 2018 An Post Irish Book Awards non-fiction book of the year. A writer, former journalist, and adopted person, Caitríona is a frequent commentator on the legacy of secrecy and shame generated by Ireland’s closed adoption system and state-financed institutions. Her commentary has appeared in the Irish Times, the Irish Independent, and RTE radio, among others. She is also a senior writer and editor for the World Bank Group in Washington, DC. A native of Dublin, Caitríona is a graduate of University College Dublin and Boston College where she was a Fulbright scholar.
Aoife Kelleher is a multi-award-winning filmmaker who has sought, in her work, to tell hidden truths about Ireland and Irishness. Her debut feature, One Million Dubliners, about Glasnevin cemetery chronicled Irish attitudes to living and dying and was described as “all you need in a film” (Film Ireland). It received numerous awards, including Best Irish Feature Documentary at the Galway Film Fleadh.
Her radio documentary, The Case of Majella Moynihan, received a Gold Medal at the New York Festivals Radio Awards and won Best Documentary at the IMRO Radio Awards. Along with Majella Moynihan, Aoife wrote Majella’s memoir, A Guarded Life, which was published by Hachette in 2020 and was nominated for an Irish Book Award.
She is currently directing a feature documentary about the Justice For Magdalenes campaign, expected for release in 2025. She lectures in the School of Media in TU Dublin.
The Capital Irish Film Festival is supported by the Government of Ireland Emigrant Support Programme, Culture Ireland, Fís Éireann/Screen Ireland, Embassy of Ireland, Northern Ireland Bureau, Northern Ireland Screen, and the Irish Film Institute’s IFI International Programme supported by Culture Ireland. Solas Nua is supported by the DC Commission on the Arts & Humanities.
