The footage recorded by fellow poet Paddy Bushe, and to be screened at an arts festival in Kerry next weekend, purports to show some of the boys interviewed by Ms Ni Chianain for the original ´Fairytale of Kathmandu´ now claiming they were offered money or coached, Anita Guidera writes for www.independent.ie.
Claims that O´Searcaigh exploited male Nepali teenagers for sex arose after ´The Fairytale of Kathmandu´ documented his relationship with the youngsters.
However, speaking to the Irish Independent on Sunday, Ni Chianain vehemently stood over the integrity of the film, which explores O´Searcaigh´s relationship with impoverished young men in Nepal. "It is what I have been saying all along. I haven´t coached, coaxed or paid a cent to anyone who appeared in ´Fairytale of Kathmandu´, and I can absolutely stand over the integrity of the filming and editing process," she said.
In a statement, Kerry-based Bushe, a member of Aosdana with O´Searcaigh, said he recorded the interviews with some of the young men who appeared in the film while on a trekking holiday in Nepal having only met O´Searcaigh on half a dozen occasions before.
He has accused Ni Chianain, of "clever editing" and said what he heard raised "huge questions" for RTE and Vinegar Hill Productions.
Speaking in her home village of Gortahork, Co Donegal, where she was co-hosting the Guth Gafa international documentary film festival, Ni Chianain said she would be happy to show the full "rushes" of unedited footage, to prove here was no coaching or creative editing involved.
Relationship
This includes the full transcript and 45 minutes of unedited footage of the single-take interview recorded with 16-year-old Narang Pang, for whom O´Searcaigh buys a bike in the documentary, and who later speaks in detail about his relationship with the middle-aged Irish language poet.
After seeing the original documentary with his lawyers, Mr O Searcaigh met with Narang in India, and has since begun funding his education. Narang is reinterviewed by Mr Bushe and gives a different account of his interview with Ni Chianain.
"I have been living with this for the last four or five years now and it saddens me that this claim is still being made," she said.
Ni Chianain has also said she will put the unedited version of her interview with O´Searcaigh on the ´Fairytale of Kathmandu´ website.
Related story
Producer Hari Bhatta and director Dipesh Sapkota reunite after...
