Event

The Peacemaker

Fri Sep 14: 7.45pm
Sat Sep 15: 3.45pm
Sun Sep 16: 4.00pm, 7.30pm

James Demo
US
2016
1h 30m

About
Padraig OMalley is a man of contradictions. Hes an international peacemaker who has worked to end violence in Northern Ireland, South Africa, and Iraq, but has no official allegiance to any country or governmental body. He is an ex-alcoholic who owns a bar to finance his work. He suffers from anxiety not when hes in conflict zones, but when hes out of them. Hes a father who has devoted his life to peace but confesses to have never loved anyone. Director James Demo captures OMalley in his austere apartment; follows him as he travels from country to country; eavesdrops on his confessions in Alcoholics Anonymous; interviews his longtime professional and personal partners. And yet, for a man so steeped in humanity, he is at a remove, even from himself: an impossible object at the center of the film. The Peacemaker wisely allows OMalley to retain the fathomless complexities that have driven him to become an opaque figure on the edges of historic events.

By the end of The Peacemaker, you feel youre watching a Samuel Beckett character furiously trying to improvise himself out of the play. In the process, hes bringing the rest of us along. Ty Burr, Boston Globe

The weight of the world is evident in OMalleys dour gaze, but its clear too, in Demos sensitive, piercing portrait, that the endless job hes carved out for himself is his lifeblood, and its own kind of addiction. Sheri Linden, The Los Angeles Times