"An Unreliable Witness" Making the Film

This film has no narrator but is simply told through the voices of seven characters: David Tereshchuk, David’s wife Melissa, Don Mullan author of “Eyewitness Bloody Sunday”, John Kelly – brother of one of the victims, journalists Eamonn MacDermott and Paul McCauley as well as John Hume, MP. The film also includes moments when David meets family members Michael McKinney and John Nash.

The film runs one hour and seventeen minutes, and was shot in high-definition video at 24 fps. Initial shooting began one month before David’s trip to Derry. McHugh and his crew started by capturing David at work at the UN headquarters in New York, and interviewing him about this upcoming trip. 90% of the documentary was then filmed during David’s one week stay in Derry in late January 2001. The crew followed him every step of the way as he reacquainted himself with Derry and the Bogside, until the morning he finally entered the Guildhall to testify before a bank of three judges on January 31, 2001.

Scripting and editing happened almost simultaneously from early 2002 until late 2003.

A large part of this film’s strength is the use of the archive footage that helps chronicle the time in Derry in the late 60’s and 70’s as David witnessed the civil rights campaign go through various stages until the day of the march on January 30th 1972. The producers searched the archives of film houses in the United States, Great Britain and Ireland and have assembled the most comprehensive use of footage from the day itself, as well as some rarely seen film from other moments of the civil rights campaign. The archive film footage drives the story as David takes the audience back to that day over thirty years ago.

Still photos also played a vital role in this film – since most of the film crews were soaked by a water canon on Bloody Sunday and were unable to film the actual shooting – the existing still photographs help re-tell the galvanizing moments when the first shots were fired.