Fatima Was Me City

Fatima Was Me City is a collaboration between film maker Vinny Murphy and Rialto Community Drug and was produced by Common Ground. Over a two year period Vinny Murphy documented personal and group testimonies and worked with the men’s group, alongside local community facilitator Joanie Whyte, on exploring different stages in their lives.

Fatima Was Me City reveals searingly honest testimonies from this group of six local men who grew up in Fatima Mansions, Rialto, Dublin during the 70’s, 80’s and 90’s. The marks of those decades are revealed, from the brutality of growing up with violence, drug addiction and the devastation caused to a community, to the realities of being stigmatised and left to tether on the edge of a society that treated them as outcasts.

In February 2022 the premier of Fatima was Me City was screened as part of the Dublin International Film Festival. In May 2022 it was screened as part of the Film Festival ‘Voices from the Community’ for the Canal Communities Drug & Alcohol Awareness Week. During the summer of 2022 it was screened in IMMA as part of the IMMA NIGHTS programme.