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WHERE I AM ***NEW***

WHERE I AM - Robert Drake and Colm Tóibín Image Name: WHERE I AM - Robert Drake and Colm Tóibín Description: US author Robert Drake and his friend, Booker prize nominee Colm Tóibín visiting the statue of Oscar Wilde in Dublin's Merrion Square in the documentary, Where I Am.
WHERE I AM - Robert Drake Image Name: WHERE I AM - Robert Drake Description: Where I Am - US author Robert Drake on his return to Ireland more than a decade after his life was utterly changed when he was the victim of a violent attack in Sligo.
WHERE I AM - Robert Drake Image Name: WHERE I AM - Robert Drake Description: Where I Am - US author Robert Drake on his return to Ireland more than a decade after his life was utterly changed when he was the victim of a violent attack in Sligo.

“Everything got put on hold with the assault. It really changed my life in a really dramatic way. I felt I had a choice to make. Either I could get better or get bitter. I chose the former, and that has made all the difference” – Robert Drake

In January 1999, 35-year-old gay American author, Robert Drake, was viciously assaulted and left for dead by two young men in a house he was renting with his partner in Sligo town. Suffering permanent brain damage, the incident left him unable to walk and derailed a promising literary career just as Drake was beginning to make a name for himself.

A subsequent court case sought to demonise him as a predatory gay man with his attackers, Glen Mahon and Ian Monaghan, ultimately sentenced to eight years in prison. Confined to his hospital bed and unable to speak, Drake was not present to defend his reputation at the trial.

Where I Am gives voice to his story.

Pamela Drynan’s unflinching and intimate documentary follows Drake as he returns to Ireland, and Sligo, for the first time since the attack. On the road to recovery, he revisits the country he had fallen in love with as he lays the violent events of his past to rest. He meets with friends including writers Colm Toíbín and Dermot Healy and the people who took care of him after the attack. On the pavement of a Dublin street one afternoon, he finds his story abruptly coming full circle.

Juxtaposing lyrical imagery, particularly of the landscape, against a story of mindless brutality, Where I Am is a heartbreaking but life-affirming tale of love; grief and loss, exploring a writer’s hard won redemption, the power of self-respect, courage and the complexity of forgiveness.

Full of laughter and tears, Where I Am captures Drake’s spirit and intention – moving on positively and taking the world with him.

Where I Am is a feature directorial debut for Pamela Drynan who most recently produced On Probation (RTÉ) Surgeons (RTÉ), Who Stole the World Cup? (Channel 4), Teacher Teacher (BBC), Gutted (BBC), Chancers (BBC) Little Angels (BBC). The documentary is produced by Subotica. Established in 1998, Subotica is one of Ireland’s leading film and TV production companies working with writers, directors and co-producers in the development and production of content for cinema and television.