01/05/2026
Derry Film and Video Workshopโs (DFVW) film ๐๐ต๐ฐ๐ฑ ๐๐ต๐ณ๐ช๐ฑ ๐๐ฆ๐ข๐ณ๐ค๐ฉ๐ช๐ฏ๐จ documents the intensive use of strip-searching of women political prisoners in the north of Ireland in the early 1980s. Including interviews with ex-prisoners, legal experts, activists, psychologists and the family members of prisoners inside at the time, the film was used as a campaigning tool and toured widely in Ireland and beyond. The issue of strip-searching exposed a fracture within the nascent womenโs movement in Ireland, between those who wanted to address this form of state violence against women, and those who feared the political alignment with Irish republicanism that support of the campaign might suggest. Directed by Anne Crilly, it was the first film made by the newly founded collective.
Derry Film and Video Workshop (1984โ1990) was a women-led film collective in Derry, in the north of Ireland. In the late 2010s, collecting, preserving, and re-centring the remarkable history and archive of the Derry Film and Video workshop (DFVW) was taken up by curators-artists Sara Greavu and Ciara Phillips, resulting in the exhibition project ๐๐ฆ ๐ณ๐ฆ๐ข๐ญ๐ช๐ด๐ฆ๐ฅ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ฑ๐ฐ๐ธ๐ฆ๐ณ ๐ฐ๐ง ๐ช๐ต โ ๐๐ฆ๐ณ๐ณ๐บ ๐๐ช๐ญ๐ฎ ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐๐ช๐ฅ๐ฆ๐ฐ ๐๐ฐ๐ณ๐ฌ๐ด๐ฉ๐ฐ๐ฑ. An iteration of this project is currently on view at the exhibition ๐ด๐ต๐ข๐ต๐ฆ ๐ฐ๐ง ๐ถ๐ด at de Appel, made in collaboration with EVA International โ Irelandโs Biennial of Contemporary Art, which features a chapter foregrounding the campaign against the strip-searching of women political prisoners in the north of Ireland, including rushes made for the DFVWโ film ๐๐ต๐ฐ๐ฑ ๐๐ต๐ณ๐ช๐ฑ ๐๐ฆ๐ข๐ณ๐ค๐ฉ๐ช๐ฏ๐จ.
After the screening follows a conversation with Anne Crilly and Sara Greavu.
๐ Sunday 17.05.2026, 19:00 at Filmtheater Kriterion
Ticket link: https://www.deappel.nl/en/archive/events/1341-film-screening-stop-strip-searching-1986