At the height of the conflict in Northern Ireland, Gerry Conlon and three others were falsely convicted of IRA bombings in Guildford, England.
Director Lorenzo Moscia met Gerry Conlon two months before his death in 2014 and recorded In the Name of Gerry Conlon - an intimate documentary where Gerry shares the story of his wrongful conviction, and how he found meaning in life by fighting for others in similar cases of miscarriages of justice after his release.
Below, Lorenzo shares the inspiration behind In the Name of Gerry Conlon, which receives its Irish TV premiere on RTÉ One this August - watch it now, via RTÉ Player.
When I met Gerry, the thing that surprised me most was discovering that his real nightmare was not, as one might think, that of being thrown behind bars for 15 years as an innocent man; don't get me wrong, those years were certainly years of fear, suffering and despair, but as I got to know him, I discovered that his real nightmare materialised once he was out.
His vivid memory, also confirmed to me by his psychiatrist and solicitors Gareth Peirce and Alastair Logan, played tricks on him. It only took a sentence said at one of the football matches we watched together (he was a big Machester United fan and his idol was George Best) or the colour of a shirt to enter into his personal time machine and find himself in a cell in 1978 when someone had been stabbed or set on fire, or to go to January 1980 and see his father in his hospital bed as he took his last breaths before dying.
Gerry, since his release in 1989 aged 35, has been trying to make up for part of the 70s and all of the 80s that were taken away from him when he was arrested at the age of 19. He hungered for life, love and justice but for 15 years he could not find one or another and his thirst was not quenched but rather became more acute.
Once in Hollywood to attend the 1994 Oscars where the film In the Name of the Father was nominated for eight awards and received none, Gerry formed a deep friendship with Johnny Depp, so much so that he went to live at his house. Depp's mother ironed his shirts and took care of Gerry as if he were her own son. Gerry got to know actors, directors, singers and after some time realised that he had no talent and nothing to do with the Hollywood jetset: "What can I do with my life?" he asked himself numerous times without ever giving an answer. He returned to England and shut himself away, living as a hermit for four years.
In the Name of the Father
Finally Paddy Joe Hill, one of the Birmingham Six with whom he had shared part of his imprisonment in English prisons, called him and invited him to do what Gerry did best - talk. Gerry began to help other victims of miscarriage of justice around the world, he began to make peace with himself and his past but was diagnosed with cancer that killed him, just 25 years after that triumphal afternoon at the Old Bailey where he comes out, he surprises everyone and makes a live speech that will break the walls of judicial and police silence.
When I interviewed Gerry with the camera propped up on a cigarette pack in his kitchen, the idea wasn't to make a documentary. For me, the camera represented a kind of notebook where I could take notes which I would later use to write the articles that accompanied my photos. And so I did with Gerry, publishing two articles, one for a Chilean magazine and another for an Italian magazine.
When I later learned of Gerry's death I took all those clips and started editing them like a documentary. I composed some music on the piano and reconstructed his story. The producer, Ines Vasiljevic came across my edit by chance and offered to help me make other trips to interview other characters connected with Gerry and so we manage to win a fund from the Italian Ministry that allowed me to collect more material and interview Alistair Logan, Paddy Joe Hill, Paddy Armstrong, Patrick Maguire, Jim Sheridan and many others.
I entered people's homes maintaining the same minimalist setup that I used with Gerry. I was alone, without a crew and this perhaps helped me to receive more intimate and authentic testimonies. I often sit with the interviewees over a beer, in their kitchen as with Patzi McCann, a close friend of Gerry's.
In The Name of Gerry Conlon
The challenge, once all the interviews were done, was to assemble material where the main actor, the protagonist, had passed away. I will be considered crazy or naive but I swear that throughout the process I felt the presence of Gerry close to me, guiding me along the way. I knew that for editing it would have been fantastic to be able to work with an Irish editor, as the whole project was in English and the story being told certainly does not have an excessive and profound degree of familiarity with an Italian citizen. Well another little miracle was to find the only Irish editor who lives in Rome, Sarah McTeigue. Thanks to her, I was able to put all the footage in order.
I hope Gerry is satisfied with this job, done with honesty, love and above all respect for his story and that of others like him who are constantly deprived of their freedom in an arbitrary way, because I think this is another important message of this work: what happened to The Guildford Four, The Birmingham Six and The Maguire Seven could happen to anyone.
In the Name of Gerry Conlon, Monday 14th August, 9.35pm on RTÉ One and RTÉ Player
