In this deeply personal authored documentary, producer, broadcaster and gay activist, Bill Hughes, tells the story of his friendship with radio and TV star Vincent Hanley. He reveals the story of Vincent’s life and ultimately his tragic death from AIDS in 1987, set against a backdrop of an Ireland in the throes of a devastating AIDS crisis.
It has been 35 years since this 80s pop culture icon died in April 1987. For a generation of Irish people Vincent Hanley represented a different, more cosmopolitan world, light years away from the drab grey reality of that difficult decade. In this documentary Bill Hughes meets with friends and lovers of Vincent who describe a man full of life, energy, and big ideas.
As vibrant and exuberant as Vincent was, he was firmly in the closet. Bill meets with gay activist Cathal Kerrigan and journalist Una Mullaly who discuss the brutal reality of being gay in Ireland at that time, with 3 murders of gay men happening in 1982, one of whom was Vincent’s friend and housemate Charles Self. They tells how the Gardai turned up to people’s homes and workplaces, deliberately outing them to their families and their colleagues, as part of their investigation. This resulted in many fleeing to the UK and the US, straight into the arms of the HIV/AIDS epidemic that was just beginning to take hold.
The documentary explores the AIDS epidemic as it reached Ireland, the government and the media’s reaction to it and the founding of Gay Health Action to distribute accurate information about this new gay plague.
Hughes also meets with Vincent’s friend Terry O’Sullivan to discuss the changes they both noticed in Vincent during the MT USA period. Terry and Bill both began to see the physical indicators of AIDS in their friend, a fact that Vincent continually denied, under intense media scrutiny. Bill meets with Prof Fiona Mulcahy, Medical Director of the Genito Urinary Medicine & Infectious Disease in St James’s Hospital, who remembers Vincent in his final days in the hospital. She describes the difficulty they faced when caring for patients who hadn’t disclosed their sexuality to their families.
In a raw, emotional interview, Bill describes the final moments of his dear friend Vincent’s life. He speaks of the generation lost to AIDS in the 80s and 90s and the need to remember them and honour their memories. This documentary tells Ireland’s ‘It’s A Sin’ story.
‘Vincent Hanley: Sex, Lies and Videotapes’ is an intimate film told by one of Vincent’s closest friends, of a man with endless hopes and dreams, whose life was cut tragically short by the AIDS epidemic.
A BAI Sound & Vision funded documentary, produced by Mind the Gap Films.
Director: Aoife Kelleher
Producers: Bill Hughes & Jennifer Healy
Executive Producer: Bernadine Carraher
Editor: Brenda Morrissey
Camera: Matthew Kirrane