text: Watch: Documentary maker returns to East Belfast 33 years after leaving Troubles-hit Northern Ireland - Belfast Live
  Steven Linton grew up in East Belfast during the Troubles, and returned to document the change in communities which remain segregated by interface walls
  For Steven Linton, growing up in the turbulent Troubles in Northern Ireland was all he ever really knew, but now 33 years since he left these shores, Steven has returned to see what has changed down through the years.
  Documenting his return to loyalist East Belfast, where he spent the first 15 years of his life, Steven explores the Unionist reaction to the peace process where communities are still segregated by giant interface walls.
  Speaking to Belfast Live about the documentary, Steven, who grew up on Mersey Street, said: "As a teenager, I was eager to escape a turbulent Northern Ireland where the country had experienced the turmoil induced by the Hunger Strikes just before we left.
  "As well as this, I'd been given a lot of homework to do by my teachers at Grosvenor over the school holidays after the end of 4th form to prepare me for the following 'O Level' year at school, so the made me especially eager to experience a 'new adventure' and be able to forget about my educational stresses at the time.
  "In hindsight, I should have probably urged my parents to keep me in school for that last year but I was young, carefree and had never experienced a warm climate."
  Steven and his family left Northern Ireland in August 1982, to emigrate to Newcastle, NSW, Australia.
  He admits he knew the situation in Belfast during the Troubles was certainly a unique one.
  "As a child, I came to realise that the situation in Belfast was not a normal one, but because it was all I had ever witnessed, didn't really trouble me although it has had a lasting impact and even though I've been away for a long time, it's always felt like the place where I'm from and the accent I'll always pick out first in a crowd."
  Reflecting on why he wanted to return and make the documentary, Steven said: "I wanted to make the film because I felt that many people in mainland Britain and around the world were under the illusion that the conflict in Northern Ireland was completely resolved and that there was genuine peace happening in the region.
  "Having been back on several fleeting visits over the years, I wanted to enlighten people who did not live in NI of the issues caused by troop withdrawals - increased number of peace lines and greater segregation.
  "I also wanted to show that in the 33 years I had not lived in Belfast, yes, the physical landscape had indeed changed and that no longer were bombings and killings an everyday occurrence, but the barriers of people's hearts and minds and the physical barriers dividing the 2 communities are still very evident and still remain."
  He continued: "When making the film, I did so alone. I was very aware of people's distrust of the media and found that because I had lived in East Belfast before, I was more acutely aware that interviews would be hard to get.
  "In the research of the film, I learned, having spoken to Katy Radford at the Institute for Conflict Research, that the Department of Justice were providing money for the Hole in The Wall project at the City of Belfast Boxing Club and put me in touch with Terry Mccarran who runs the club.
  "This story had the most impact on me as a director due to the hope it offered in bringing the 2 communities together in a space where not only the boxers could mix but where the parents, friends and families of the boxers could socialise and get to know each other.
  "This initiative, for me, offered a metaphor for what could be applied to the city as a whole in the future. I also found Terry to be an inspirational figure who 'thought outside the box' and who ignored many of the established narratives marring the progress of the peace process.
  "After making the video I realised that change was possible and indeed happening in East Belfast, although I also recognised that transformation and compromise was often occurring at a slower pace than I'd imagined it could be.
  "In saying this, the situation is a complex and unique one, with a history which isn't brief, so even though I have hope that things are getting gradually better, there is still a lot of negotiation and conversation to achieve true peace.
  "I can still understand people's frustrations in both communities but really do have hope that, eventually, the divisions will lessen gradually, hopefully sooner rather than later. I hate using the words 'tolerance' and 'compromise' which have been used many times over the years but believe resolutely that more conversations are needed for Protestants and Catholics to accept each other's cultures."