Lyra

This is a well made documentary on the life, career and death of Lyra McKee.

Ms. McKee was killed during a protest in 2019 when a police reform protester fired a .22 pistol in direction of riot police hitting Ms. McKee. I remember in my city in the US a very similar incident a bit over a year later, when an anti police protester during the same type of anti-police 2020 riots in the US, threw a brick at police hitting and permanently blinding a bystander. Also in summer 2020 in the US we had police shot at by the same type of "police reform" rioters and others hit as well.

This film is well paced. One gets a sense of the victims life and challenges, and her achievements accomplishments, and lost potential.

While the broader global context of the disgusting anti police views of the violent protesters, be they those in this film or the Molotov throwing Antifa type thugs we broadly saw in the US in summer 2020, or the people committing violence arson elsewhere in Europe at the time, is present and implicit, that context could have been more broadly explored.

Lyra McKee was a young campaigning Northern Irish journalist, murdered by paramilitaries for sticking her nose in where they didn't want it stuck. As is the way in the modern world, one of her skills was self-promotion, which means there's a fair amount of material to feature in this film, which is unquestionably hagiographic in tone. But there does seem to have been a lot to admire in McKee a fierce sense of justice and determination, supported by an inner confidence and self-belief that depended not one whit on privilege. She comes across as a force of nature, someone well aware of the evils of the world yet personally uncynical. All murders are tragedies; in McKee's case, we also lost someone who might have done a lot of good for the world, if only she had been allowed the chance.

It is hard to put my experience into words... it was amazing. It was amazing that it's a true story. It was amazing that the story was told in the first place. The story itself was amazing. It was all overwhelmingly amazing.

As a documentary, nothing you see is fake. When I learned of Lyra's death in the first 10 minutes, I thought, "Wait... they got shot... wait... they aren't a character... wait... this is the story of someone who was actually murdered." Everything from that point onward was surreal. It told this beautiful story of Lyra's extraordinary life. Her character was wonderful, and any time she showed up in some family home video footage I was delighted by her charming personality. There's something about Lyra that makes you smile.

Exploring the effects of her murder on her family, the community, and even Ireland as a whole was... amazing. She was such a wonderful woman who meant so much to so many people that the response to her death was a massive outpouring of love and respect from all across the nation. Experiencing that through excellent documentary footage was amazing.

I loved the way the story let the audience get to know Lyra and grieve with her family. I felt like I had a connection to Lyra and her family even thought I'd never met them.

I was very impressed by the music. There were a few songs that made me bawl my eyes out.

I feel a great deal of respect and somberness for this movie. It truly takes the potential that movies have and stretches those boundaries. It's a very unique movie and I feel honored to have experienced it.