Preceded by short:The Visit (Orla Walsh, Ireland, 1993): "The Visit progresses through a series of flashbacks which explore the predicament of a young woman who must tell her husband, a long-serving Republican prisoner, that she has become pregnant....Walsh reveals a hidden culture of women in the North."-Beyond the Pale program notes. (30 mins, Color, 16mm, From Irish Film Archive, permission of the artist)The affectionate, bittersweet Hush-A-Bye Baby, set in the Catholic housing estates of Derry in 1984, centers on the emerging sexuality of fifteen-year-old Goretti and her friends, one of whom is played by Sinéad O'Connor, who also composed and performed the music. Goretti falls in love with Ciarnan, and after he is wrongfully arrested, realizes she is pregnant. Isolated, a victim of social and religious rigidity, her world shatters. This thoughtful, deceptively simple film is the first feature by the now-defunct Derry Film and Video Workshop, which sought to counter outside media images of the North with indigenous productions. The script of Hush-A-Bye Baby was inspired by news accounts and emerged out of workshops with young people. (KG)