Death is Final

‘Death is Final’, is a short film and moving image art installation that will explore the life and death of filmmaker Tatiana Kilpatrick’s great-grandmother, Margaret Crossan. With a documentary and autobiographical approach, Tatiana aims to reinterpret and remember the life her grandmother lived through ‘The Troubles’ as a woman and mother of 14 children. 

Margaret was born in 1928, the same year Ireland was split in two after the people living there went to war against their British rulers. For 90 years, her life was surrounded by conflict, crossfire and violence, and living on the border has had a profound impact on her life. Men during this time, were mostly unemployed. It was the women who were able to find work and balanced raising young, so Irish and Northern Irish mothers tend to be the dominant force of the family. 

This was something in my own life that I could identify with. Women being in charge, so I wanted to delve into this subject further. I wanted to see ‘The Troubles’ through the lens of Margaret, a mother, wife and working woman. In conclusion, the filmmaker mainly explores ideologies of desensitization of violence and sectarian attacks.