Vince Vaughn has decided to try a new position in the film industry. Rather than starring in another I'm-a-tough-guy-who-finds-his-heart romantic comedy, will be taking the role of producer for a documentary being directed by his sister Valeri.
The film, Art of Conflict: The Murals of Northern Ireland, explores art murals in Northern Ireland that display the region’s sectarian conflict. Co-produced by Dan Lebental, the film premiered on Netflix this week. The trailer appears below.
Vince Vaughn was inspired to make the film after making a trip to Northern Ireland around a decade ago. He said, "We went to Belfast and I was staying at a hotel and they said, have you seen the murals? I didn’t even know that these existed.” He was taken aback by what he saw and ended up spending 7 years making the film with his sister.
“I was fascinated that out of this obviously very difficult conflict, this interesting and expressive art form came,” he said. “Here are two people living divided by walls that continued to be built up, that never met each other, didn’t want to talk to each other. You had years and years of conflict and mistrust that were both expressing themselves to their own communities in a similar art form.”
The film is narrated by Vaughn and uses interviews with both Protestant and Catholic muralists along with community leaders on both sides of the issue. The documentary isn't meant to provide a chronology of events, rather it sets out to talk about the art itself. The movie has played at film festivals in the U.S.
[viaWSJ]
