The making of 'Once upon a time in Northern Ireland'

Can documentary storytelling be a vehicle for understanding stories from a contested but shared past? Could they help us to better understand the present and inform our future?    

This Imagine Festival event will seek to address these questions and more through a panel of filmmakers and consultants to the award-winning BBC / Open University documentary series ‘Once Upon a Time in Northern Ireland.’  

Highly acclaimed, ‘Once Upon a Time in Northern Ireland’ gave voice to powerful personal testimony of ordinary people who were involved in, and lived through, extraordinary times in Northern Ireland.  

Panellists from The Open University, BBC, Walk on Air Films and KEO Films, will discuss the challenges of making the series; the relationship between memory, history, and personal testimony; and the responsibility of getting this all right. 

Once Upon a Time in Northern Ireland was awarded ‘Best Documentary Series’ and ‘Best History Documentary’ at the 2023 Grierson Documentary Awards.