Holylands (2004)

Holylands (2004) was made over the period of a year and a half from 2001 to 2003, shot through the artist’s window and on the streets occupying a 20 yard radius from his house in Belfast, Northern Ireland. The title Holylands is the name of his neighbourhood, named after the titles of its streets – Jerusalem Street, Palestine Street, Damascus Street, Carmel Street and Cairo Street. The area was originally developed by a property firm, headed by Robert McConnell a devout Christian. It is also a district of the city that combines a transient student population with more long-term residents.

The film in part depicts these people going about their every day lives, showing fragments of their negotiations through this territory but it firmly resists either a documentary or narrative approach. A bag lady rummages in a bin, young boys play with a water pipe, and a delivery van unloads out side a shop. It is an ordinary snapshot of an extraordinary area, defined by its history of religious divide and social unrest.

The film’s images are spliced together with an evocative soundtrack that includes hip-hop, traditional Irish and classical music to provide a counterbalance to the images and enables them to work as abstract sequences.

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