Frank Sweeney Go Ye Afar

Frank Sweeney brings attention to the ways broadcast media has been instrumentalised to impose or restrict certain viewpoints, often in relation to state ideologies such as religion and cultural identity. Celebrating the slippages in authenticity inherent in analogue recording and transmission, he reveals the potential for a broader range of narrative truths and histories.

Sweeney’s new film, Go Ye Afar, records the journeys of an Irish-Nigerian taxi driver as his miraculous car moves through the streets of Dublin and Calabar. The film uses rear-projection, reenacted interviews, archival material, and Nollywood-style special effects, to connect the use of media by missionaries in shaping the Irish understanding of the Nigerian–Biafran War, to the foundation of major Irish NGOs in response to this conflict and the legacies of colonialism in contemporary free trade and immigration systems.

The taxi brings several characters through locations in Ireland and Nigeria, exploring the memories and legacies of colonialism, Christianity and charity connecting both regions. The script for the film is written by Beulah Ezeugo of the Éireann and I archive and Frank Sweeney, originating in a series of oral history interviews with Irish-Nigerian taxi drivers and missionaries who worked in both regions.

Frank Sweeney’s recent exhibitions and screenings include Anthology Film Archives, New York (2024); FILMADRID, Madrid (Special Mention) (2024); International Film Festival Rotterdam (Winner Tiger Short Award) (2024); EVA International, Limerick (2023); Sirius Art Centre, Cobh (2023); CCA-Derry (2022); Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin (2021); Green on Red Gallery, Dublin (2019).

The production of Go Ye Afar is supported by an Arts Council Film Project Award.