Bernadette

Bernadette (2008) is about the Irish civil-rights activist Bernadette Devlin, who was elected to the British parliament at the age of only 21 in 1969, becoming its youngest ever MP. Following her election promise — “I will take my seat and fight for your rights” — she broke with the traditional Irish republican tactic of abstentionism (the refusal to take up seats in the Westminster parliament) while at the same time continuing to take part in direct resistance to discrimination against the Catholic population of Northern Ireland. Among such agitation her active involvement in the “Bogside Riots” (1969) — one of the key confrontations at the start of the “Troubles” — earned her a prison sentence. In his film Campbell uses documentary photographic and film material about Bernadette, which he often uses as it is, but for much of the film works it over or underlays it with a reflective, narrative voice. In subtle ways this voice again and again calls into doubt the possibility of authentic transference of information and raises the question of our selfawareness in relation to political and cultural history.