Gasyard Feile to host first screening in Derry of 'Bobby Sands: 66 Days'

The documentary film “Bobby Sands: 66 Days” is to get its first screening in Derry next week as part of Gasyard Feile. Sands (27) was the first of the 10 hunger strikers to die in Long Kesh in 1981. He died on 5 May after 66 days on the protest. Produced by Belfast director Brendan J Byrne, it premiered at the Hot Docs Film Festival in Toronto in May. The 100-minute film uses eyewitness testimony, unseen archive, reconstructions and animation to chart his story, while narration is comprised of Sands’s own words, taken from his diary of the hunger strike. It will be introduced at its Derry screening by Foyle Sinn Fein MLA Raymond McCartney who himself spent 53 days on hungerstrike Mr McCartney said “There have been many different angles you can take when addressing the story of the hunger strike but I think the way in which the facts leave people feeling tends to be universal. There have been many films and documentaries made in the past and I think people can see how utterly unjustified and wrong it was for the British government to criminialise republican prisoners “ He concluded: “I think prisoners in Armagh and Long Kesh were epitomised by the 10 men who gave their lives and I think anyone seeing this for the first time will agree that republicans were first and foremost political prisoners.” The film will be screened on Thursday next, 4 August. For tickets, telephone 02871 262812. To view trailer, go to: http://66daysthefilm.com/trailer