DIRECTOR

Ronan Tynan is an award winning filmmaker and his latest documentary Bringing Assad To Justice with Anne Daly has already been selected by almost 50 festivals and won several best documentary awards. This followed their previously highly successful Syria - The Impossible Revolution which looked at the history of the peaceful uprising in 2011 which turned into a revolution after President Bashar al-Assad began brutally crushing and embarking on what the UN human rights chief at the time called a campaign of “annihilation” against civilians with allies Russia and Iran, and turning the country into one of the world’s worst humanitarian and refugee crises.

PRODUCER

Anne Daly began her career as a young reporter in Central America covering the funeral of Archbishop Oscar Romero a hugely popular defender of the human rights of his people speaking out against the military backed death squads. The army opened fire on the packed congregation during his funeral mass in San Salvador and Anne prepared a multi award winning report in the cross fire in the pews with the people. That experience gave her a life long interest in covering people resisting brutal dictatorship right up to now with her latest multi award winning feature documentary Bringing Assad To Justice with Ronan Tynan very consistent with her very first report!

Prior to co-founding Esperanza Productions with Ronan, Anne worked for as a broadcast journalist for RTE, Ireland’s national television and radio broadcaster, and won a number of awards for her broadcast journalism. Their first documentary together with Esperanza was made in 1995 during the Rwandan genocide entitled: Rwanda - No Justice, No Future, again on the same theme of accountability as their latest feature documentary!A consistent interest in the Developing World has informed her output over the years, especially stories about people, often at great cost to themselves, seeking to stand up for others. DROPPING THE NUMBER 10 FOR DILI, and Esperanza co-production with RPT, Portuguese National Television, and filmed in East Timor, Portugal, the UK, and Ireland is a good example. Anne won the Television Journalist of the Year Award 1999 for that documentary, with Ronan Tynan. Anne’s first social documentary about the struggles of parents with children with severe learning disabilities – WHEN HAPPINESS IS A PLACE FOR YOUR CHILD – won a National TV Broadcasting Award in 1996.

EDITOR

Kevin Cooney is a hugely experienced editor, having started out in the business almost thirty years ago. He initially worked in educational programming, but gradually came to focus on documentaries and factual television. During that time he has edited a vast range of projects, many of them award-winning - from stories of Irish life and history to intimate portraits of artists and public figures; from exploring social and political issues to harrowing accounts of conflict and the struggle for human rights.

Alongside many of Esperanza Productions documentaries, Kevin’s credits include: On Another Man’s Wound, A Quiet Exit, In the Name of the Republic, KM64 - Birth of a SkatePark, TK Whitaker - Servant of the State, Revolution in Colour, The Great Guide to the Future, The Pinochet Legacy, Seven Days in Tibet, Loving and Able and The Troubled Dean.