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SOMEWHERE: Could this be anywhere in the world where people suffer from oppression and daily violence?
SOMETIME: Anytime over the last 800 years?
SOMEPLACE: A temporary freezone in the middle of Europe's oldest trouble spot where people feel free to discuss, sing and laugh at their sacred cows.
Enjoy an evening of political cabaret intercut with the views of cultural workers, a soldier recounting his tour of duty, black poets drawing parallels from Britain and the former colonies on the Irish situation and a comedian who thinks its funny to make jokes of our situation. Is there nothing sacred?
A kaleidoscope of views on the relationship between Northern Ireland and Britain, Northern Ireland and the Republic and within Northern Ireland itself.
Television is generally dominated by the same old people saying the same tired old things. Where are the new faces and more especially in Northern Ireland, new perspectives on our situation? The broadcasters' response is that the public are reluctant or frightened to appear, or they have not the time or the money to encourage people or there simply just isn't anyone around with something fresh to say......oh Yeah!
BETWEEN OURSELVES takes a different approach. The work is ongoing for a year, the film makers are full participants in a larger group of poets, musicians, actors and writers, documenting the development of the work, not just having a separate and distinct 'onlooker' role. Skills are shared, everyone is encouraged to express new ideas and explore different ways of expression. The vehicle for the programme is a cabaret setting, a live cabaret performed to an audience intercut with interviews and archive. The work is devised during the year through workshops (including renovating the building where the cabaret takes place) and the viewer gets an insight into the thoughts of participants and the development of the work, not just a polished end product. The workshops include painters, poets, actors and musicians.
Keitoi: a poem about the dilemmas and confusion of being Irish. Words flowing over a collage of sounds, classical, traditional, electronic with an interview exploring what it means to be Northern Irish.
The power and pressure of Christianity through song and interview.
The Soldiers Tale: A song from a Belfast person on his views on the army. An ex-British soldier who served here recites a poem he was moved to write on the death of a little girl in Belfast. He tells why he joined the army, his preparation for Northern Ireland, what he and his community feel about Northern Irish people, and his reaction to the people that shot him.
The Thatcher years, why a painter chooses to design a set using Thatcher as a Marilyn Munroe icon, a humorous song followed by a tour of Belfast, how Thatcher economic policy has changed the face of Belfast....... for better of worse?
A Southern street poet introduces us to the views of people in the South, how do they view the situation in the North, what is their reply to Loyalist fears, their opinion of British justice, the border, extradition, the continuing IRA campaign?
Is sectarianism/racism so entrenched in the North that nothing can shift it? Does it have parallels with Black people in Britain? Is there anything we can learn? Alternating between a Belfast singer and a black poet from London, we explore the similarities.
For Channel 4 1993. Financial Assistance from Cultural Traditons Media Fund, Community Relations Council. Augsburg Film Festival, Germany 1993. Excerpts broadcast by SALTO, Holland, January 1993. International Visual Arts Foundation Festival, Gyor, Hungary 1993. EuroAim Screenings, Donostia, Spain 1993.
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