Film Ireland Podcast FilmIreland

In this Film Ireland podcast, Gemma Creagh talks to Prasanna Puwanarajah, Director of Ballywalter.

A life affirming story about the unexpected connections that can change the course of our lives.

Eileen (Seána Kerslake) is a caustic, unrepentant University drop-out whose dreams of a successful life in London have fallen by the wayside. Back at home with her mum, she makes ends meet by working as an unlicensed driver in her ex-boyfriend’s minicab.

Shane (Patrick Kielty) has exiled himself in Ballywalter following the break-up of his marriage, but now he’s trying to get his life back on track by enrolling in a stand-up comedy course. When Shane calls a taxi to get him to his classes, Eileen answers and a surprising connection is made. As the two spend time together shuttling back and forth, a beautiful friendship develops, leading both to a moment of realisation.

Shane reintegrates; Eileen makes peace with herself and who she really is. Finally, she can stop running and just drive.

Ballywalter is in cinemas from 22nd September 2023.

In this Film Ireland podcast, Gemma Creagh talks to Bryony Dunne about her film Surrender Your Horns.

Surrender Your Horns is a feature film that starts with a lonesome Irish man snorting a substance of powdered horn, who then undergoes a bestial metamorphosis. The work combines documentary footage with absurdist performances of unicorn nightclubbers, reproductive biologists, and horn smugglers.

Surrender Your Horns premiered at Galway Film Fleadh last year, and went on to have a number of international screenings at venues such as Thessaloniki Documentary Festival in Greece, Film Maudit in LA, and was presented in Limerick for the opening events at EVA international, Ireland’s Biennale for Contemporary Art. On Thursday 21st of September it will screen at the Mermaid Theatre in Bray to celebrate the space’s 21 year anniversary, and in October it is set to screen at Another Way Film Festival in Madrid and Worm in Rotterdam. Check out the instagram account for updates on screenings planned for the coming months.

Bryony Dunne is an Irish visual artist and filmmaker who engages with the overlap between documentary film, cinema, photography, and the natural world. Her work has been exhibited at the Mosaic Rooms (London), the Irish Film Institute (Dublin), DEPO (Istanbul), among other venues, and she has participated in a number of international film and video festivals, including Thessaloniki Documentary Film Festival (Greece), Clermont Ferrand Short film Festival (France), Cork Film Festival (Ireland), and Rencontres Internationales Paris/Berlin. She is a former resident at the Jan van Eyck Academie in Maastricht (2021/22).

https://filmireland.net/

In this Film Ireland podcast, Gemma Creagh talks to ‘Hidden Assets’ Series Producer Kathryn Lennon and Executive Producer James Mitchell.

Hidden Assets returns to our screens this Autumn with a six-part second season, set between Limerick and Antwerp, Belgium.

Hidden Assets airs on Sunday September 3rd for 6 consecutive weeks at 9.30pm on RTÉ One and RTÉ Player

Over a year has passed since the events in season one and the stage is set for an exciting season full of twists and turns. Claire (Nora-Jane Noone), new to our team as lead Detective Sergeant within Criminal Assets Bureau (CAB) faces a sudden challenge – a coordinated cyber-attack targeting CAB and the Belgian Counter-Terrorist Unit (CTU), with a connection to the Bibi Brannigan case.   

Bibi (Simone Kirby) , under threat from Richard Melnick’s business partner Frances Swann, resurfaces with some new and crucial information unveiling dark details on how Richard ran his company Trestford. 

In the face of growing violence and ever higher stakes, Claire and CTU’s Christian De Jong (Wouter Hendrickx) must join forces to uncover and expose the truth about Trestford and Swann: it’s a race against time to stop the sale of Antwerp Port.

Commissioned by RTÉ and Acorn TV in association with Screen Ireland, Screen Flanders and SuperChannel and financed through tax incentives from Ireland (Section 481), Belgium (BNPPFFF) and Canada ( Quebéc production tax services).

Hidden Assets is produced by Irish production company Saffron Moon and Canada’s Facet4 Media and co-produced with leading Belgian producer Potemkino. Hidden Assets is an Ireland, Canada, Belgium co-production.

https://filmireland.net/

Ahead of its screening at this year’s FrightFest, Gemma Creagh talks to Tony Devlin, Director and Co-writer of The Glenarma Tapes.

In the spring of 2020, five art students and two lecturers went missing in a remote forest in Ireland. What happened to them has remained unknown – until now. Their last movements are pieced together from found footage recovered from a police operation almost two years later, where it becomes clear that what started out as an innocent prank went badly wrong and became a horrific fight for survival in the cold darkness of Glenarma Forest. Let the deadly race to escape begin…

The Glenarma Tapes is the latest film to be produced through Northern Ireland Screen’s New Talent Focus initiative.

The Glenarma Tapes screens on 26th August at Frightfest (24 – 28 August 2023).

In this Film Ireland podcast Gemma Creagh talks to Laura McGann about her film The Deepest Breath.

The Deepest Breath follows champion freediver Alessia Zecchini, who fell in love with the sport as a child growing up in Italy, astounding coaches with her raw talent and determination in pool swims and open water contests before she was even old enough to legally compete. Irish adventurer turned expert safety diver Stephen Keenan, meanwhile, was raised near the sea, but as a young man he set out on a quest to find himself, traveling across Africa before landing in Dahab, Egypt and establishing a dive school. Despite their very different paths, the two would meet at the pinnacle of the competitive freediving world, discovering a shared passion for pushing their limits and forming a powerful relationship that felt like fate.

From Irish director Laura McGann, this thrilling documentary takes a look inside one of the most dangerous sports in the world, using everything from raw underwater dive footage to childhood home movies to chronicle Zecchini and Keenan’s lives and careers. The bond between them propels the film’s emotional journey into the stunning, silent depths of the ocean, a breathtaking place unseen by all but the fortunate few – where exhilarating accomplishments and unavoidable risks await.

The Deepest Breath is in cinemas from 14th July 2023 and is available to stream on Netflix now.

In this Film Ireland podcast, Paul Farren speaks to Author & Scholar Murray Pomerance about Alfred Hitchcock’s timeless classic Vertigo.

Murray Pomerance will be presenting at the Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo: 65th Anniversary: 1958-2023 which takes place 21 – 23 August 2023 at Trinity College Dublin.

The conference also includes a special screening of Vertigo in the Lighthouse Cinema in Dublin on Sunday, 20th August at 8pm.

www.vertigo65.com

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