Solas Nua's Irish Popcorn! film series and NYU Washington, DC present
I Am Traveller.
2016 | Documentary | Runtime: 50 minutes | English
This event took place on
Wednesday, June 30 • 7 PM ET / July 1 • 12 AM IST
Post-screening discussion with director Kim Bartley and John Connors, in conversation with Dr. Miriam Nyhan Grey, NYU's Global Coordinator for Irish Studies.
Introduction by Solas Nua board member Kate Meenan-Waugh.
Rewatch the full discussion below | Runtime: 36 minutes
John Connors is an Irish Traveller, actor, screenwriter, documentary filmmaker and playwright. I Am Traveller is John’s personal account of what being a Traveller means to him. He reveals what he loves about Traveller culture, as well as what frustrates him about it. He opens up about the prejudice he has experienced as a Traveller all his life – and how that hasn’t gone away, despite his success as an actor.
The documentary features interviews with young Traveller girls, who tell John about being bullied at school. He meets with Traveller men who are coming together to tackle depression and suicide in their own community.
During the making of the documentary, ten members of the Traveller community including a pregnant woman were killed in a fire on a halting site in Carrickmines, Co. Dublin.
In what was their first on-camera interview since the event, John meets the surviving members of the family caught up in the fire. He interviews 15-year-old John who managed to save one of his nephews on the night of the fire, but who is struggling to deal with the fact that he couldn’t help his own brother Thomas, who died in the blaze.
The post-film discussion portion of this event has been pre-recorded.
Registration is required in order to receive log-in details for the Zoom webinar. Please note that this program may be recorded.
Live auto-transcript captioning will be available on this Zoom webinar.
• Irish Popcorn! takes place on the last Wednesday of every month •
• Ways to watch •
More on Irish Popcorn! →
All events are listed in Eastern Time and Irish Standard Time.
