Producer Fergus Dowd introduces 406 Days, the new documentary telling the story of the 1,000 Irish Debenhams workers who were made redundant in April 2020, resulting in the longest industrial dispute in Irish labour history.
On April 9th 2020, as the world stood still in the early days of a pandemic, one thousand Irish Debenhams workers, mostly women, awoke to news that would change their lives forever.
At 11:59am on that very day they received a generic email telling them their jobs were no more and the redundancy they had agreed through their union in 2016 would not be paid out.
What followed was 406 days of protests and pickets. Long lonely days standing in loading bays across the country come rain, hail or shine, blocking trucks and fighting for their redundancy - mothers, grandmothers, fathers, sons and daughters; often with the support of local communities who lived nearby.
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Listen: 406 Days - RTÉ Arena on the new documentary
Hearing about the story would lead me to write the book Tales of The Debenhams Picket Line which documents human stories of courage and determination, and captures the laughter, tears and anger that were so much part of the Debenhams Ireland dispute.
The success of the book would lead me to work with Joe Lee, an award winning Dublin-based film director. From an initial meeting over a cup of coffee in Buswells Hotel with Joe and some former Debenhams workers, we plotted a rapid production process that would capture the dispute from the point of view of the picket line.
The approach capitalised on the energy and enthusiasm of former workers to tell their stories and the opportunities to film inside and outside of the now abandoned stores.
The visual landscape of the film is the cavernous empty spaces, that were once cathedrals of the retail trade, in the former glory days of the big department store. All of this, along with the dark, windy and wet loading bays in hidden out of way parts of our cities, was brilliantly captured by our camera team of Daniel St Ledger and Tom Lee.
The film also greatly benefited from the generosity of supporters and the social media content they gave us access to as well as the news media archive material from reportage of the dispute.
with producer Fergus Dowd
Filming took place between March and November on location in Dublin, Waterford, Cork, Tralee, Limerick and Newbridge. I doubled up as production manager/researcher as well as producer while Joe doubled up as editor/graphic designer and director. Post-production was carried out at Joe's facilities and Displace Studios on Richmond Road, Dublin 3.
All of the production process was conducted in continuous conversation with the former Debenhams workers, in particular with production advisors Carmel Redmond and Jane Crowe.
The production was largely self-funded with some finishing funding from Dublin City Council. Our strategy was to have the film ready for the 2023 Dublin International Film Festival. We managed to meet that deadline and were surprised and delighted to win 3 awards; The 2023 DIFF Audience Award, 2023 Dublin Film Critics Circle Award for Best Irish Documentary Award and the 2023 DIFF ICCL Human Rights Award.
Through the DIFF screenings and awards, we linked up with the film distribution company, Eclipse Pictures, and with their help we open in 17 cinemas nationwide on Friday May 26th, 2023.
406 Days is on release in selected cinemas nationwide this Friday.
