Making a film about a man who makes peace (Boston Globe)

Making a film about a man who makes peace
http://articles.boston.com/2011-05-22/ae/29572055_1_northern-ireland-document…
Loren King (Boston Globe)
22 May 2011

Boston filmmaker Jim Demo is in Northern Ireland, continuing production on his documentary “The Peacemaker.’’

It’s about Dublin-born, Cambridge-based Padraig O’Malley, professor of international peace and reconciliation at the John W. McCormack Graduate School of Policy Studies at the University of Massachusetts Boston. Demo will film the second annual Forum for Cities in Transition conference in Derry/Londonderry this week with delegates from four continents and 12 divided cities. Launched by O’Malley, the inaugural conference was held at UMass Boston in April 2009.

Demo describes his documentary as a portrait of O’Malley’s life, work, and philosophy. He says the project began in an unlikely, though some might say perfect, spot: the Plough and Stars pub, in Cambridge, the local watering hole that O’Malley has owned since the 1970s. “I thought it was just a fish tale at the bar. But as I researched him, I discovered he was involved in high-level peace processes in Iraq, South Africa, Northern Ireland, and other war-torn regions,’’ says Demo, a former lawyer who formed Central Square Films in 2006. His first film was the 2009 comic short “First Time Long Time,’’ starring John Savage, Amanda Plummer, and Karen Black.