The Pieces of Me
The Pieces of Me is a feature-documentary that traces director Carol O'Keeffe's search for their birth mother. Born in Ireland in the early 1970s, Carol and their mother were separated shortly after Carol was born. 40 years later, Carol goes on a deeply emotional journey in an attempt to find and reconnect with their birth mother.
Funding
Irish Arts Council
History
ERA Category
- Recorded/Rendered Creative Work - Film/Video
Funding type
- Other
Eligible major research output?
- Yes
Research Statement
Research Background In 1992, Jay Ruby wrote “Speaking For, Speaking About, Speaking With, or Speaking Alongside: An Anthropological and Documentary Dilemma”, an essay about the dilemma of representation in documentary film. The question of how someone can adequately represent someone else and how the filmmaker exercises, shares and relinquishes power is closely linked to documentary and ethnographic filmmaking alike. The voice of the author and the ethical treatment of the subject, at times, become opposing forces. The first person documentary, seemingly, negates this tension - except, of course, for the editor. As stereotypical ‘second director’ of a documentary film, the editor is usually trusted with creating narrative tension, structuring an overall argument, working out characters and, thereby, shaping the film like no other in the production process. How can editing navigate issues of representation if the director is the documentary’s subject? Research Contribution The Pieces of Me is a one-hour autobiographical documentary that follows director Carol O’Keeffe’s two-year long search for her birth-mother. The film is a deeply emotional account that explores the director’s complex feelings and intellectual thoughts on belonging, identity, parenthood and the social system in Ireland that, dominated by Catholic believes, until the 1970s, often forced unmarried mothers to give up their children for adoption. In autobiographical documentaries, editing becomes a constant balancing between dramatic tension and ethical protection of the director’s emotional vulnerability. The editing approach to The Pieces of Me interweaves poetic fiction with non-fiction elements to visualize an emotional journey that often is difficult to show, and to create a respectful distance to the director/subject – thereby negotiating between the director as filmmaker and the director as human subject. Research Significance The Pieces of Me was awarded Best European Documentary at the Heart of England International Film Festival 2010, selected for the Videotheque at Sheffield Doc/Fest 2010, the Swansea Bay Film Festival 2011 and the Irish International Film Festival 2011. The Pieces of Me screened on Irish broadcaster TG4 in August 2013.Publisher
TG4: Irish Television ChannelPlace of publication
IrelandConfidential / Culturally sensitive
- No
Copyright notes
© 2013. The author/s hold copyright in this workLanguage
EnglishSize of work
50 minutes documentaryNumber of discrete components
1Length of recording
50 min.Was the work disseminated?
- Yes
Form of dissemination
- Public broadcast
Scope of dissemination
- International
Did the work go on tour?
- No