Not too many people from this city can boast of having an internationally renowned film shown as a main attraction in the cinema of their home town. But, in the past few weeks, 'Waveriders', Margo's collaboration with director Joel Conroy has done just that.
In Northern Ireland, successful film makers tend to be successful because they have an innate knowledge of the 'Troubles' and make films and documentaries on this subject. Of course, Margo has made material on our history, but her latest offering concentrated on the world of surfing and the Irish link to its burgeoning popularity across the globe.
Recognition for 'Waveriders' came in February when Margo and Joel Conroy won the innaugral George Morrison Feature Documentary Award at the Irish Film and TV Awards in Dublin. The film also picked up the award for Best Sports Documentary at the Celtic Media Festival in Wales.
'Waveriders' tells the story of George Freeth, the son of an Irishman, who re-introduced the ancient art of Polynesian wave riding in Hawaii after it had been stamped out by Christian missionaries in the early part of the 20th Century. By the time he died, aged just 35, he was renowned for his skills as a surfer and a lifeguard.
The story of the Irish link to surfing comes to its natural conclusion as Irish and British surfers team up with world champion Kelly Slater to ride some of the most exciting surf ever seen on this island.
The film concludes with footage of 50ft waves being conquered of the coast of Mullaghmore in County Sligo.
Just as captivating is the story of Margo Harkin herself. A woman with roots firmly planted on both sides of the River Foyle, she has an obvious love of her city.
In January, 'Paradiso', a film commissioned by the BBC, was an acclaimed documentary about the Fountain. The name of a former bar in the area, it was the starting venue for a bunch of young musicians in the 1960s. The programme followed the reformation of that band, 'The Signetts' and their attempt to reunite not only themselves but people from across the city for a dance in the Apprentice Boys Memorial Hall.
"I am fourth eldest in a family of sixteen children. Fourteen of us are still alive as is our amazing mother. I was born in Pilot's Row in the Bogside where my parents ran a little shoe business with my granny Harkin from her house.
"We moved to Oakfield and then out to Drumahoe when I was five after my father bought a farm and a large house. I can still vividly recall playing in the cardboard packing boxes for days before we were allowed out to the garden and the fields. The transformation in our circumstances was fairly mind blowing," she said.
Whilst Drumahoe was basically a 'country' place in those days, the Harkins maintained strong connections with the city.
"We had so many relatives and friends still there such as my great uncle Baldrick, a docker, who bred beautiful Springer Spaniel dogs and we still bought our weekly groceries from Bridie Sharkey's shop. I was often sent to Bridie's to buy snuff for my granny and at Christmas her favourite gift was a paisley print snuff hankie from Woolworth's.
"Drumahoe was like a natural paradise in those days. The wide open spaces fringed by huge beech trees, teeming with red squirrels, fields of swaying barley, the salmon filled River Faughan - all opened up the senses and the imagination at a young age. I think each of us became acutely aware of the very different worlds that people inhabited and learned early how to cross boundaries from one community to another," said Margo.
Creative
The film producer was always creative and trained as an artist at the Ulster College of Art and Design, yet by her own admission remained unfocused in her career for many years.
This changed in 1980 when she was offered a job as an Assistant Stage Manager with Field Day Theatre which was producing Brian Friel's 'Translations'. Margo told the Sentinel: "After its premiere in the Guildhall in Derry I joined a highly successful tour of the play throughout Ireland.
"The whole experience was an enlightenment to me. I met so many generous, creative giants of the theatre and arts world and learned intimately the process of collaborative creation. At the age of 30 and already seven years married, I headed to London to do a theatre design course at around the time that Channel 4 was founded.
"I came back home to co-found Derry Film and Video Workshop with Trisha Ziff and Anne Crilly. Channel 4 was providing seeding funding at the time for a new wave of independent film makers-so luck and opportunity played a large part in my entry into the industry."
Practicalities
The practicalities of becoming a film maker and producer are not straightforward and Margo Harkin remains convinced that the best way to learn is on the job.
"I did short courses here and there over the years but there were no media courses back then. I still believe the best training is in actually making films. I made a lot of mistakes and some boring films but I learned not to be pig headed and to listen to what people have to say about what you have done. If enough of them are saying the same thing over and over that's when you really learn.
"Hard work is essential and it can sometimes take a while to find out which area of production you are best talented at," she said.
In 1990, Margo's take on the then still relatively taboo subject of teenage pregnancy, 'Hush-a-Bye Baby', caused an absolute furore.
Filmed on location in Londonderry with some local actors and the pop star Sinead O'Connor, who also composed the music for the film, Margo said she and her co-workers on the project were aware that the piece would be controversial. The issues surrounding the core topic remain politically contentious to this day.
"We deliberately entered into a discussion on how women were being treated in Ireland at the time. The idea for the film was born in a period when contraception and the right to choose were being fought hard for by women north and south of the border and the need for secularisation of the state was on the political agenda. A few horrific scandals had come to light.
"A 15-year-old girl called Ann Lovett and her newborn baby had died in the open air on a bitterly cold January day in 1984 as she gave birth."
She said that in the summer of the same year there was a public Tribunal of Inquiry into statements extracted from Joanna Hayes and her family by Gardai who were convinced she was connected with the death of a newborn baby that had been found on a beach stabbed 27 times. The charges had been thrown out by the court.
"Ireland was in a state of moral panic and the public climate was particularly divisive during the 1983 abortion referendum. I wanted to make a gentle film that would make people recognise the circumstances of a 15-year-old who gets pregnant and to help us move beyond the knee jerk condemnatory reaction and secrecy that was prevalent and to open up a space for sympathetic rather than polemic discussion. My feminist friends did not think the film went far enough - but it was never meant for them," Margo said.
Looking at life through a lens always brings a different perspective to most topics. And, it has not escaped Margo Harkin's attention that many changes have taken place in her native city over the years. She told the Sentinel of what she has seen: "The changes are mostly physical in terms of the look of the town but there have been some massive migratory changes.
Drumahoe
"The old Bogside has gone and Drumahoe is no longer in the country. Sadly, the Protestant population has largely moved to the east bank and I do think that is the greatest loss.
"My husband, Kevin O'Carroll, and I moved out to one of the last remaining 'mixed' communities on the west bank 19 years ago. It was one of the best things we ever did. When Kevin died suddenly in 2005 my daughter and I were supported by so many kind and generous people from throughout Derry and especially from the communities in the Brandywell, Creggan and the Fountain. But, my next door neighbours in our little row in Glenabbey provided an enduring love that I will forever be grateful for. Sadly, many of my Protestant neighbours have gone to the east bank in recent years but they still maintain contact - my good friends Liz and Barney Jackson are still the lynchpin of our little community.
"The thing that remains unchanged in Derry is the resilience and great humour of people and I just love the fact that you can still go up the town and bump into about a dozen people within an hour and have a great catch up chat."
As said, Margo has tackled hard edged political material in her life as a film maker. But, the topic of surfing covered in 'Waveriders' was new to her. She said: "I knew nothing at all about surfing, but I did like watching it on screen any chance I got. It is just so cinematic and energising to see the beauty of the waves off the coastline all around us and I marvel at the skill of the people who ride them. When director Joel Conroy came to me with his idea for a film about the Irish connection to surfing I barely hesitated about getting involved. He was impressive, the idea was impressive and frankly I was flattered that he considered me to help him deliver his idea. It was a different direction for me but it has been one of my better decisions in life. Working with such a dedicated, youthful team helped me enormously through my bereavement."
Margo also said that the most enjoyable part of her job is meeting new and interesting people all the time.
"People are very trusting and you have to be careful not to abuse that trust. Getting an animated reaction of any sort to something you've been involved with creatively is the best feeling ever," she said.
A champion of independent film making here since the outset of her career, Margo established Besom Productions in October 1992.
Since then the company, operating with just a core staff of three people, has produced work for BBC, RTÉ, TG4 and Channel 4 Television as well as international companies. Besom specialises in documentary, drama, arts and educational programming and also welcomes collaborative inquiries from other companies across Europe and beyond.
With that in mind, the current financial crisis has put pressure on film makers and producers who are also on the look out for contributors to the coffers. Margo told the Sentinel that it has had a mixed impact on output.
"Some ideas will always find a market but some of the films I want to make just get turned down all the time and there comes a point where you cannot bring it back to financiers or broadcasters anymore.
"I move on as best I can, but I rarely give up on an idea if it really means something to me and I still think there is a chance to fund it. Budgets offered by broadcasters are getting lower and costs are still getting higher - a symptom which is probably familiar to a lot of small business people. Electricity costs have soared to a point where we can barely afford to rent our office anymore," Margo said.
Despite the financially gloomy state of affairs at the moment Margo Harkin still takes positives from it all. Whilst she says that financial investment and support will always be required, the situation, she maintains is a lot better than it was when she began because there are major agencies in place now to support the independents in the industry.
"I don't believe in a free ride. I believe in hard work, but I do think there should be some form of rates relief for the arts in general or for all small businesses below a certain turnover as the taxes in this town are forcing us all out of existence and back into the idea of working from home deep in the country. It works against stimulating the creative economy.
"I do have enormous job satisfaction - as long as I can keep doing this job. Film makers are artists generally have no safety net, but I have been blessed to have been able to survive so far making a living doing what I love best. My sister and colleague, Edel just force our films into existence by sheer will power, tenacity and hard work," she said.