Michael Grigsby's Film-making Career

Available for over a year

Free Thinking is BBC Radio 3's hugely popular festival of ideas and provocative debate which this year has been taking events across the UK. In the second of 2 programmes from Derry Londonderry Radio 3's Matthew Sweet will be examining the work and legacy of director Michael Grigsby, who died earlier this year, and who made a trilogy of films in Ulster. In the first two, Too Long A Sacrifice and The Silent War, he invited people to talk about how The Troubles had impacted on their lives. Grigsby famously banned voiceover from his films, giving his subjects the space and time to tell their story in their own words. In 2005 Grigsby returned to Ulster to make Rehearsals, an impressionistic snapshot of Belfast. Michael Grigsby's three films bear witness to two decades (and several centuries) of Ulster history. Matthew Sweet is joined by two film-makers who worked closely with Michael Grigsby, Rebekah Tolley and John Furse, to pay tribute to his work. This event was recorded at the Playhouse Theatre in Derry-Londonderry, this year's UK City of Culture Free Thinking has been festivals throughout the summer including HowTheLightGetsIn at Hay, the Institute Français Philosophy Night in London, York Festival of Ideas and the Daily Mail Chalke Valley History Festival in Wiltshire. These events lead the way towards Free Thinking's annual weekend of debate at the Sage, Gateshead on October 25th to 27th. Producer Laura Thomas.