THE TEAM WHO brought you the highly popular One Million Dubliners, the documentary about Glasnevin Cemetary, are making a new film.
This time it’s about Knock.
Aoife Kelleher, who directed One Million Dubliners, is also behind the new documentary about the Mayo town “built on a miracle”.
“Knock is an incredibly resonant place within the Irish psyche and for many of us it’s a place we’ve heard about for as long as we can remember,” she said.
One Million Dubliners really struck a chord with people in Ireland. There was a massively emotional response to the film here and Kelleher and her crew hope to achieve something similar with their new documentary.
They want to explore what Knock means for people today. The new film will take viewers inside the village which is just bustling with stories.
Middle-aged bachelors searching for the perfect wife at the Knock Marriage Bureau, Travellers who walk barefoot for days to reach the Shrine in memory of friends passed on, curious Muslims from the border town of Ballyhaunis, rosy-cheeked children preparing for their first Holy Communion, staunch Catholic faithful, seeking to protect Catholicism from any and every onslaught and the sick and recovering addicts in search of divine intervention.
Some 1.6 million pilgims visit each year and the film crew wants to find out why, in an increasingly cynical Ireland, anyone still believes in the kinds of miracles Knock promises.
They have already secured support from RTÉ and from the Broadcast Authority of Ireland but need that little bit extra to tell “the international story of Knock”.
“People say their lives have been changed forever because of their experiences of Knock,” Kelleher explained, and her team wants to show how the miracle travelled far beyond Ireland and its diaspora.
Now they are trying to raise €70,000 in 36 days to make it happen.
In her appeal for support, the director says:
We are reaching out to you – the curious, the skeptical, fans of film, believers and non-believers alike – to help us explore this unique world, where religion is everywhere. Together, let’s discover what it’s like to live in the town that was built on a miracle.
More information about the film and how to support it can be found here.
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