May the Road Rise Up

Directed by Alen MacWeeney and John T. Davis.
Ireland, 2000, video, color, 84 min.

During the 1960s, photographer Alen MacWeeney traveled across Ireland documenting the lives and culture of the country’s marginalized itinerant community in still images. In 1999 MacWeeney returned to his subjects (this time with a film camera) and with acclaimed documentarian John T. Davis picked up where his earlier project left off. In revisiting Ireland’s "travelers" thirty years later, MacWeeney and Davis explore the internal dynamics of their community, the distinctiveness of their culture, and the ways in which that culture has changed over the years. The result is a layered and provocative portrait of a society on the fringe of mainstream Ireland.

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Alain Kassanda,
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