In Pray For Our Sinners, filmmaker Sinéad O’Shea returns to her hometown of Navan, just north of Dublin, to dig into a recent past that remains shrouded in secrecy. The film shines a light on the commanding role of the Catholic Church in every aspect of Irish society. Before abortion was legalized in Ireland in 2018, women had scant options for an unwanted pregnancy. Women without social connections were treated like a threat to society. Across the country, Catholics put total faith in the church to set moral boundaries, educate their children, and solve family problems. Few dared to push back when pregnant girls were sent into seclusion, when their babies were taken away for adoption or when schools meted out corporal punishment. With compassion and persistence, O’Shea gets her neighbors to open up about the brutal treatment of young women who got pregnant out of wedlock and were separated from their families to be placed in group homes. The film focuses on the extraordinary figures in the Navan community who chose to fight back against the status quo. A couple who founded a family planning hospital, a woman who refused to give her baby up for adoption, a 9-year-old boy who dared to speak out against his teachers’ physical abuse. Their stories remind us, in O’Shea’s words, “there is always a way to resist.”

SINEAD O’SHEA is an award-winning filmmaker and writer. Her first feature documentary A Mother Brings her Son to be Shot premiered at CPH:DOX 2018 where it was nominated for a FACT Award and won worldwide acclaim. It was executive produced by Joshua Oppenheimer and became a front page story for The New York Times after the shooting of Lyra McKee in 2019. Filmmaker and writer, Mark Cousins, described it as an essential film about Northern Ireland. It was one of the most successful documentary releases in Irish cinemas of 2018 and she was named as one of the top 10 European female filmmakers to watch by the European Film Network and Screen International. She has also directed and produced over 100 films with Al Jazeera English, BBC, Channel 4 and RTE. 5 Previously Sinead reported from Ireland for The New York Times. She continues to contribute to both the The New York Times and The Guardian.