Waubonsee Community College

The disappeared, produced and directed by Alison Millar

eng

videorecording

The disappeared

electronic resource

898079310

produced and directed by Alison Millar

85

Human rights studies online

The Disappeared tells the compelling story of dissidents killed and then secretly buried by the IRA during the conflict in Northern Ireland. Uncovering hard evidence that Gerry Adams, currently head of the IRA, was involved in one of these killings, this documentary chronicles the ongoing trauma of the victims' families and demands justice on their behalf, no matter how high up the political ladder they have to climb to retrieve it."She was in the bathroom getting washed, and the next thing, they were shouting, "Where is she? Where is she?", recalls Michael McConville, about the moment IRA operatives brandishing balaclavas burst into his West Ireland home to kidnap his mother. "About five days later, an IRA man knocks at the door, and hands me mama's purse and wedding rings. I knew she wasn't going to come back."Jean McConville, a widow and mother of 10, was dragged from the arms of her children in 1972. She became known as one the 'Disappeared' – a group of at least 15 who, considered inconvenient to the Republican movement, were abducted, shot, and disposed of in shallow graves throughout Ireland. The IRA never acknowledged these disappearances, leaving families in anguish, denying them of both closure and justice. Jean's body was recovered in 2003, more than 30 years later. Others of 'the Disappeared' have never been found. Theirs is a story the IRA never wanted exposed. This daring group of filmmakers set out to shine a light on this decades-old IRA practice of disappearances and denials, and to demand justice for the victims, even if those responsible are people of current political esteem and authority. This powerful documentary questions how to hold perpetrators of war crimes accountable, years later, in a time of peace, while telling the previously silenced story of these victimized and traumatized families

adult