New film to celebrate the remarkable life of Tony 'Doc'

Everyone thinks they know Tony ‘Doc’, but how much do you really? A brand-new documentary has delved further into the life of a man who has seen and done it all in his time, a man who has always had his community at heart and who is able to tell some remarkable stories along the way.

This Saturday night at the Nerve Centre, as part of Féile 2024, ‘Tony Doc’ will explore a lifelong love story between a man and his estate, with the promise of ‘spectacular’ stories along the way.

A footballer, a family man, a businessman, a community activist, Tony has worn many, many hats in his time, and local film maker Ruairi Campbell has attempted to condense a lifetime of incredible achievements and memories into one special documentary, celebrating a man who is Derry through and through, even if some of his friends debate whether he is a true Creggan man or actually a Brandywell man.

These days, Tony can often be seen walking his dog through the Glen on his way home to Creggan, and the documentary, which will be available online in the coming weeks, will open up his remarkable story to a new and younger audience.

‘Tony Doc’ is the latest production from Féile Derry, with Oakleaf Boxing Club, Rath Mor Warriors, Sean Dolan’s GAC and Trojans Football Club all having the spotlight shone on them in recent times.

Gareth Stewart from the Féile, explained these films continue to be produced to show the many great stories and organisations within the city.

“During Covid we set up a film production arm of an organisation. We noticed was that we couldn't rely on the likes of BBC or ITV or whatever to get the stories out about our area,” he explained. “We were noticing that the only stories that they were telling about the Bogside, Creggan, Brandywell, Fountain were mostly negative, and we knew that there's loads of great stories, loads of great people, loads of great organisations working in this area so we thought maybe we need to start doing stuff ourselves.

“Luckily enough, we brought Ruairi Campbell, from Creggan, and he was a graduate from a film school at university. He hit the ground running, and came into the organisation and we sort of built it up over a couple of years where we started making wee short films and wee documentaries. He's been with us now for four years and we've been able to put multiple films out and about on social media, so you don't have to rely on the traditional platforms like TV.

“Anyone knows we can set up our own TV channel online, so using the likes of YouTube and Facebook and whatever, we have been able to create these films and put them out to a wider audience and celebrate local people, and make people feel great about where they're from and also share our story to the wider world.”

Contributions

The journey so far has been a huge success with the achievements, hard work and individuals at grassroots levels honoured for their contribution to their local communities.

“It’s been quite successful,” Gareth agreed. “It's just about getting those stories out and we’re always looking to know what's the next project, and if you think of characters, legends, great people from Creggan, Tony Doc's out at the top of the list.

“It was always one of those ones that was in the back of our heads, which we were thinking about doing it, and then I ended up bumping into Tony one day and said, “Tony, do you know way we make those films? Would you be up for it if we made a film about you?” And he's like, ‘Aye’, and that was it.”

‘To condense his story into a short synopsis would be a criminal act’- so says this year’s Féile programme, and Gareth admitted that it quickly became apparent that this would not be a short sit.

“In talking to Ruairi about what we could make this film about, and will it be a 10-minute or a 15-minute show, but the stories that Tony has are spectacular, so it's turned into an epic, and Ruairi's having loads of sleepless nights trying to put it altogether.

“Over the last couple of months he's been spending loads of time with Tony, his family, his friends, his co-workers, people he's worked up in the past, present, and just hearing all these great stories. There was a day last week when we were chatting to Tony for four or five hours at various times in the day and Ruairi just said ‘All his stories are amazing’ and he said ‘Imagine, if your job could be just go and listen to Tony Doc's stories, because they're all amazing,’.

“Some life, some story; the film will follow his life story from his childhood, his sporting life, his working life, his community work, and just sort of celebrate the great person that he is, which is something that we don't often do is celebrate people when they’re here. We tell people after what we think of them, but I suppose it's part of a wider project we're trying to do, just trying to document stories, create, document, and capture these stories, so what we can do now, with the skills that Ruairi has, and the equipment we have, we can now produce the broadcast standard productions in Creggan, and create them, and get them out there.”

What a life

During his footballing career, O'Doherty played for Coleraine, Derry City, Finn Harps, Dundalk and Ballymena United and also played internationally for Northern Ireland in the British Home Championship against England in front of a crowd of 100,000 at the old Wembley Stadium. He also managed his home town team to an FAI Cup final in the 1990s and remains involved with the club to this day. But football is just one of many different avenues in Tony’s life.

“I suppose people probably have different ways of knowing Tony,” Gareth agreed. “They might know Tony the footballer, they might know Tony the businessman, they might know Tony the community worker, because we're trying to do it all, and trying to capture it all, really. That's difficult, because there's so much, and the stories are spectacular.”

“You've got the football life, you've got from Coleraine, to Finn Harps and the success here, playing for Northern Ireland, playing alongside George Best, coming back and playing for Derry City, managing Derry City, and he’s still involved with Derry City.”

‘Tony Doc’ will be shown at St. Mary’s Youth Club in Fanad Drive on Saturday at 7pm, and it is an opportunity certainly not to be missed.

Gareth continued: “We also see from chatting to others how much he’s loved in Creggan, how much he’s respected he has from all the generations for the amount of great work he has done and he is doing in this neighbourhood; a lot of which is unseen.

“I suppose what we hope with the film sort of transforms too, is like the unbelievable energy of the man. I've never worked with anybody with as much energy in my life, and he doesn't seem to have any plans to slow down. I think Tony's 77 years of age and you see him at the Brandywell, you see him out walking his dog, you see him everywhere. I don’t think he sits down.”

A lot of hard work has gone into this latest production and Gareth and Féile Derry are now on the lookout for the next local project.

“The film would not have been possible but for Ruairi and all the people who contributed,” Gareth concluded. 2We're very grateful for people sharing stories and we would also say that if anybody has any ideas for future, future projects, get in touch with us and see what we can do.”