Screening of 'The Laramie Project'

Wednesday 25 July 2007

Wednesday 25 July 2007

7.00pm

9.30pm

ISE- 683 Antrim Road- Belfast BT15 4EG

There is no cost to this event

Event

Written and directed by Moises Kaufman and based on his play of the same name, the Laramie Project tells the story of the aftermath of the 1998 murder of 21-year-old University of Wyoming student, Matthew Shepard, a hate crime that was motivated by homophobia. The film was selected as the Opening Night Premiere at the 2002 Sundance Film Festival.

This film is shown in partnership with Zero28 and Corrymeela.

Synopsis

What happens to a town like Laramie when something unexpected, unconscionable and unforgivable rips it apart? What happens to its people when they are thrust into the unrelenting glare of a national media spotlight? And what happens to a community when trust among its own people has been shattered?

For a group of young actors and writers from a New York City theater company, these are the questions that have led them to this unassuming town, where they seek out Laramie residents - shopkeepers, teachers, students, bartenders, social workers - whose lives were forever changed on October 6, 1998. That was the night when a gay college student named Matthew Shepard was brutally beaten, tied up and left for dead on a fence off a rural road... and when Laramie, Wyoming became the Hate Crime Capital of America.

Five members of the theater company - Moises, Greg, Leigh, Steve and Amanda - have arrived here to research a play they are writing about how the Shepard assault has changed this town. The details of the case are clear-cut and well-known. On October 6, Matthew Shepard met two men at the Fireside Bar in Laramie. Eighteen hours later, a cyclist found Shepard unconscious, severely beaten and tied to a fence. He never regained consciousness, and died five days later. Two Laramie residents, aged 20 and 21, were apprehended for the crime, which became front-page news around the country. But as Moises explains as the company assembles at a local diner, "This is not about the case. This is about the town: why did this happen here, what are people saying, how do they feel and think about what happened."

Over the course of the theater company's one-year stay in Laramie, we feel how the Matthew Shepard incident has exposed the raw nerves of prejudice and fear in a town that once believed - as so many other towns do - that such prejudice and fear do not exist, and that a hate crime "could never happen here." Although the case may now be closed, the healing process in Laramie, and in America, has just begun.

Contact details

Coffee is available from 6.30 pm. The film will be shown from 7.00pm - 9.00pm followed by discussion until 9.30pm. Please note that parking on-site is very limited and that it is better to park on side-streets.

All are welcome, but since places are limited, if you plan to come please reply to

Arlene Poole
Irish School of Ecumenics
683 Antrim Road,
Belfast BT15 4EG

t: 028 9077 0061
e: poolea@tcd.ie