Mickey B does Germany

In January 2009 Tom Magill and Kirsten Kearney took ESC's prize-winning feature film Mickey B to Germany. Three universities, Mainz, Siegen and Heidelberg had invited Tom, the Director and Co-writer of Mickey B, to present the film and discuss issues of cultural identity, creativity and adaptation as well as the practicalities and ethics of working within a prison setting.

From 26th-29th January, Tom and Kirsten presented Mickey B at 4 different events to over 200 people, staff and students of the three universities. Each of the screenings / discussions created a great stir among the audiences, many of whom had never seen Shakespeare dealt with in this way before.

Each university has invited ESC back for further talks on our work and a further invitation has been issued from the new Professor of English Studies at the University of Trier. Many students also expressed an interest in carrying out an internship with ESC - ESC are liaising with the 3 universities to look into the possibilities of this and the idea of creating a summer programme to showcase ESC's work.

In addition, January saw the screening of Mickey B at Hydebank Young Offenders Centre in Belfast (12th January) in front of an audience of 45 young offenders and women prisoners. A further screening at Magilligan Prison in Co. Londonderry is also forthcoming.

ESC also received funding from O2 to host a series of community film screenings of the Extern films, organized by the participants themselves.