Rotha Mór an tSaoil – The Hard Road to Klondike (1998)
Desmond Bell · 55 min
Rotha Mór an tSaoil – The Hard Road to Klondike screens once in London: BFI Southbank, Thursday 24 September at 18:00.
Where to watch it
BFI Southbank
Belvedere Rd, Waterloo, London SE1 8XT
Siticulosa + Maeve Brennan in conversation with art critic Isobel Harbison
What it is
Titled after the autobiography of Mici MacGowan, who left his native Donegal for the United States in the late 1880s, this documentary portrays the Irish experience in America at its harshest. MacGowans early life as a migrant worker traveling between Ireland and Scotland acts as prelude to his departure for America and subsequent trek to the Yukon in search of gold. Narrated by passages from MacGowans book and illustrated with footage from documentary and fiction films of the period.