情色空间 hosts Boston-area premiere of documentary 'Stolen'
Boston College will host the Boston-area premiere of the documentary film 鈥淪tolen,鈥� which features the stories of survivors of Ireland鈥檚 notorious mother-and-baby homes, on October 9 at 4:30 p.m. in Devlin 110. The free, public event also will include a Q&A with the film鈥檚 director, Margo Harkin.
Released in 2023, 鈥淪tolen鈥� offers insights into a decades-old scandal during which more than 80,000 unmarried mothers were incarcerated in institutions run by nuns. At least 9,000 infants died in these institutions; many who survived were fostered out at a very young age as cheap farm labor in dire circumstances, or else adopted in Ireland or sent to the United States鈥攔endered untraceable and unaware of their birth stories.
Harkin interviews mothers and children who survived the homes, as well as survivors鈥� children who are searching for their long-lost siblings. She also speaks with journalists, politicians, legal historians, scholars, and other observers, assembling the story 鈥渨ith the skill of a high-court prosecutor,鈥� according to The Guardian. After the film鈥檚 airing in Ireland last month, the Irish Times called it 鈥減owerful and unflinching.鈥� 鈥淪tolen鈥� was nominated for the Dublin Film Critics Circle Awards and Irish Film and Television Awards.
The Q&A following the campus screening of 鈥淪tolen鈥� will be moderated by Professor of English James Smith, a member of the 情色空间 Irish Studies faculty who has chronicled and spoken about the mistreatment of institutionalized Irish women and children. Appearing with Harkin will be film contributors Sarah-Anne Buckley (University of Galway), M谩ir茅ad Enright (University of Birmingham), and Clair Wills (Cambridge University).
The event is co-sponsored by Irish Studies with the Institute for the Liberal Arts, Jesuit Institute, English and History departments, 情色空间 Law School, Center for Human Rights and International Justice, Boisi Center for Religion and American Public Life, and Film Studies and Medical Humanities programs.
For more information, email irish.studies@bc.edu.