Documentary Archive

Rwanda: No Justice, No Future
Made in Rwanda one year after the genocide. This documentary as the title suggests correctly foretold how events would unfold if those who were responsible for the genocide were not quickly brought to justice.

When Happiness is A Place for Your Child
Esperanza’s first major social documentary looks at children with severe learning disabilities through the parent’s eyes. Made with a courageous parents support group – The Limerick Parents & Friends.

“So good were the interviews by Anne Daly and so eloquent the interviewees that this Esperanza Production made the viewers as angry as the parents.”
– John Boland, The Irish Independent

“…Is a moving study of the struggles faced by these parents to get even the most basic help.”
-The Sunday Tribune

“…Its great strength was the honesty of the parents.”
– The Irish Times

We Still Want You But…
This proved to be a highly controversial documentary although it was made with returned development workers who questioned the value of sending them to the so-called Third World. The startling conclusion was simple – do not go where a qualified local professional could do the job. In many cases when a foreigner from the First World goes he or she, although often on what would be a relatively modest salary in their own country, are usually paid a multiple of what the equivalent local person would get. They also consume considerably more resources in terms of housing, services and transport.

To Beijing and Back
This documentary filmed a group of women before, during and after the UN Women’s Conference in Beijing and sought to look at their expectations and hopes and how they felt on their return – did it live up to their expectations? This documentary was made in association with the National Council for Development Education

Are We So Different
Inspired by To Beijing and Back; Are We So Different? investigated if the Beijing Conference has made a difference to African women. Anne Daly and Ronan Tynan followed three women over a 1,600-kilometre trip across Tanzania as they sought to answer that question.

“Its other fine qualities aside, Are We So Different? was the best film about class in Ireland I have seen.”
– Liam Fay, The Sunday Times

Grounding a Hawk with a Hammer
Anne Daly and Ronan Tynan’s first documentary on East Timor is about the four women in the UK who destroyed a hawk jet fighter to prevent it from being exported to Indonesia and used against East Timorese civilians. The women were all found not guilty by a Liverpool jury. Featuring an in-depth portrait of two of the women involved, this documentary showed the extraordinary courage of some of those who stood by the East Timorese as a genocide was perpetrated against them by the Indonesian military.

Dropping The Number 10 for Dili
Tells the story of Tom Hyland, a former bus driver who saw a documentary about genocide in East Timor one night in 1992 and it changed his life. Filmed in East Timor, Ireland, Portugal and the UK this documentary celebrates courage of the East Timorese people and shows how one individual made a difference in campaigning against their brutal oppression.

“…a truly blood stirring film…Directed with cinematic flair by Ronan Tynan and written with controlled outrage by Anne Daly.”
-The Sunday Times

“…absorbing film…”
– John Boland, Arts Journalist of the Year, The Irish Independent

“Don’t miss it”
– Ian Mallon, The Star

“…this one succeeded…”
– Eddie Holt, The Irish Times

“Its a gem…”
– Declan Moroney, Ireland on Sunday

Race to the Bottom
Filmed in the sweatshops in Bangladesh and Derry in Northern Ireland and looked at how the sweatshops moved from the so-called First World to the Developing World. It was inspired by a story in a newspaper about 51 workers, mostly women and girls, some as young as ten years old, who were burned to death in a factory fire outside the capital Dhaka. They were unable to escape because the doors were locked and windows barred – a common practice in the industry. However, it only made about two paragraphs – barely warranting a mention in any Irish or British national newspaper.

“If you watch this documentary…every time you finger the seam of a jacket or the rivets on a pair of jeans while shopping, it will be impossible to feel anything other than the sweat of the people who put it together,”
– The Irish Times – TV Review

A Fragile City
This documentary looked at what it is to be homeless through the eyes of people who are experiencing homelessness and focused on the work of TRUST (a health and social service for people who are homeless). A Fragile City seeks to critically look at the nature of homelessness in Ireland. This documentary is the result of several years of collaboration between Alice Leahy (Director and Co-Founder of TRUST) and Anne Daly. They first met when Anne was a reporter in RTE, and covered many times the issues that Alice and TRUST highlighted, especially the importance of tackling exclusion and stigma associated with those who become homeless in Ireland.

“This remarkable documentary…may have made some of us realise that there, but for the grace of God, go I,”
– Mary Holland, The Observer

“…a sharp and moving reminder of what can happen when a society no longer has a place for the outsider.”
– Kathy Sheridan, The Irish Times

Where 2+2=5
Children with no formal education, exposed to drug gangs and violence, in a sprawling favella or shanty town in Sao Paolo, prove the power of the arts against the odds. Held up at gun point by a ten-year-old boy Fr. Pat Clarke was moved to do something for children who often risked meeting an early death as a drug gang member. Today the Centro Cultural he helped create is a dynamic heart of a community and run by the people of the favella. This documentary offers a unique testimony about the difference the arts can make, when someone unleashes their extraordinary power, to help others.

“Anne Daly and Ronan Tynan have mastered the complex craft. In documentary making, as in stand-up comedy, it’s the way you tell ‘em.”
– The Sunday Times

“…a record of exposing the harsh realities of the developing world.”
– The Sunday Tribune