Now Funding: Irish documentary Knock

Currently funding on IndieGoGo is Knock, the new documentary from One Million Dubliners director Aoife Kelleher.

The village of Knock in County Mayo is a site of pilgrimage for members of the Roman Catholic fate, after an apparent apparition of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Saint Joseph, and John the Evangelist in 1879. The village also played host to a visit of Pope John Paul II on the 100th anniversary of the apparition in 1979.

Knock - Image

The documentary Knock has been filming since March,and will continue until Easter 2016. So far scenes filmed include the Saint Patrick’s Day parade in New York City, and the first transatlantic pilgrimage to Knock, direct from JFK on August 9th. The pilgrimage led by Cardinal Timothy Dolan, Archbishop of New York, is the first of its kind, with 170+ American pilgrims attending the Novena. The film will follow these pilgrims on-camera a few months after they return to the US – to discover what impact the pilgrimage has had on their lives.

One Million Dubliners, in addition to being a landmark documentary, increased tourism figures at Glasnevin Cementary by 87%, and producers Underground Films hope that Knock can do the same for Mayo and the historic village.

Knock - Image

Producers are looking to raise an ambitious €70,000 to help complete the filming and post-production of the documentary. Additional funding comes from RTÉ Religious, the Broadcast Authority of Ireland, and Section 481 tax credit.

Check out the IndieGoGo page or Facebook for more information.

Welcome to Knock – the town built on a miracle.

At first glance, Knock may appear to be little more than a relic of Ireland’s past, populated by dogmatic Catholics steadfastly clinging to the idea that the Virgin Mary once appeared in a backwater in the West of Ireland. But Knock is full of people with compelling stories, some of whom believe in The Miracle, some in smaller, everyday miracles, and some who come in search of spirituality, “a greater experience of God, a greater encounter”. All who come here, come with hope.

Middle-aged romantics seeking the perfect partner at the Knock Marriage Bureau, the Travellers who walk barefoot for days to reach the Shrine, the Catholic pilgrims who seek benediction or absolution, curious Muslims from the border town of Ballyhaunis, rosy-cheeked children preparing for their first Holy Communion, the sick, and recovering addicts in search of a miraculous cure. At the centre of it, parish priest Father Richard Gibbons – lawyer, philosopher, local hero – who has been charged with saving the Shrine, and with it the village, and his beloved Church. In Summer 2015, the American faithful are due to land at Knock Airport, led by Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York City. Can the village a tiny, rural Irish town become the new Lourdes?

This film explores daily life in Knock, as, under the leadership of Father Richard, the shrine – and the village itself – is modernised to adapt to and serve the needs of contemporary Ireland and 21st century Catholicism. Through our examination of this journey and of daily life and ritual in this small, iconic town, the film explores attitudes to faith, and what place belief now occupies in modern, western society. Above all, the film examines the universal longing to believe; the basic human need for hope.