Stop Nineteen

Stop Nineteen (Swindells, 2019) is a brief retelling of Ireland’s recent history, told from the perspective of a tourist bus guide and some citizens of Belfast itself. Footage of these traumatic events shown at the very start of the documentary immediately exposes viewers to the suffering that was experienced during this time. I found this confrontational style and the lack of suspense quite refreshing as it directly addresses the subject of the short and dives directly into the core of the story being told. The accounts of the people who grew up in Belfast offer a personal and thought-provoking perspective on the tourism that the city’s tragic history has attracted. One person in particular highlights how peculiar it is that people marvel at the locations which hold so much pain to those living nearby.

Alongside how informative the documentary is some of the creative choices made in areas such as the sound created quite a real and immersive experience. Especially with the lack of soundtrack, it prevented the encouragement of a certain response from viewers, allowing the room to absorb the information given in the documentary and generate their own responses to it and avoiding a sense of bias from the filmmaker.

Written by Amber Allport

Stop Nineteen is part of the Into The World strand Sheffield Doc/Fest 2020