The work of writer/director Terry George give a human face to political ideas. He talks to Seán McCarthy about growing up in Belfast, his film career to date, and his thoughts on contemporary western society.

Terry George is a gentleman – an astute, well-tuned, sophisticated family man who enjoys fishing, when he can. George is also the writer of In the Name of the Father, The Boxer, and Hart's War, and the writer/director of Some Mother's Son and the Oscar-nominated Hotel Rwanda. Terry is reading scripts continuously in his private search for a 'human' story. He is currently adapting John Burnham Schwarz's novel Reservation Road for the screen. Joaquin Phoenix is set to star in the film, which recounts the horrific death of 10 year-old Josh in a hit and run accident on a Connecticut road. In his lilting Belfast timbre, Terry George speaks to me over a telephone from his pad on Long Island.

Seán McCarthy: What originally drew you to film as opposed to any other form of artistic expression?

Terry George: Just because it was there. It just sort of evolved, probably along with Jim Sheridan. I started off in journalism, and then worked in the theatre with Sheridan, and out of that came several opportunities to write kind of 'spec' scripts. But the defining moment was In The Name of the Father. I think there's a sort of progression that if you're involved in journalism or theatre in New York or Los Angeles then you're automatically going to get involved in film somewhere.

As a young lad growing up in Belfast, what cinema do you recall most, and what films or film directors first caught your attention?

The cinemas I remember were sort of 'classic' for my generation growing up in the 50's. I'd go to the Saturday matinees. There were a good few cinemas in Belfast at that time, probably like Dublin as well, you know. The Curzon on the Ormeau Road; the Picturedrome, which is quite close to where all my cousins lived. Small cinemas all around the city in different neighbourhoods.

And the movies that made an impression on you?

What age was I when the Bond stuff came out? I can't remember when the first one was! I was intrigued by those. In the early teens it would have been adventure films, war films, you know. The Longest Day was a big deal.

Hammer Horror movies? Cinematographer Freddie Francis?
Yeah … yeah! When I could get in - there was a sixteen plus or something on those. But by the time I was sixteen or seventeen the troubles had broken out, so a lot of the cinemas closed down, and it kind of wasn't a priority then.

The full article is printed in Film Ireland 111.