Our Kind | Irish Artist's Film Index

Our Kind

Alan Phelan


View this work

https://vimeo.com/159526652

Artist's biography

Alan Phelan

Synopsis

'This film is concerned with the legacy of Roger Casement who was one of the leaders of the rebellion in 1916 in Ireland against British rule known as the Easter Rising. He was executed in August 1916 several months after the other fifteen leaders. Despite the failure of the rebellion it did set in motion events that lead to the Republic and is commemorated in 2016. The work seeks to circumvent usual commemoration tactics by fictionalising alternatives and shifting timelines while navigating historical and revisionist assessments of Casement. Recent writing contrasts him as a naive nationalist or flawed gay icon; an imperialist champion of human rights or self-accepting humanitarian. The history of Roger Casement is much contested and filled with many of the contradictions that surround the entire 1916 commemoration itself.Our Kind imagines a future for Roger Casement had he not been executed in 1916. This film is set twenty-five years later in 1941, where Casement is in exile in Norway with his former manservant and now partner Adler Christensen. They are visited by Alice Stopford Green, a close friend and supporter of Casement. The story unfolds as Adler and Alice both betray their relationships with him, paralleling Casement’s isolation from his homeland, beliefs and the ideals of the Rising. Our Kind gets its title from the iconic speech Casement made on his conviction, and extracts of this speech are used in the film, giving the words new meaning.' (Sourced from the artist July 4th 2016)


Images

Details
Title

Our Kind

Year

2016

Form

Short

Key phrases

portrait, text, biographical, gay/lesbian, historical, exile, betrayal, ireland-history-easter rising, 1916, norway

Language

English (eng)

Duration

00:30:00

Original formats

Digital: Apple ProRes 422, Quicktime Physical: BD-Videodisk

Aspect ratio

16:9

Colour

Black & White

Sound

Yes

Supported by Kildare County Council Arts Service, the Arts Council of Ireland and Visual Artists Ireland.
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