Donal Gilligan Tribute at IFI

admin | May 24, 2011 | Comments (0)

The Irish Film Institute will pay tribute to the late Donal Gilligan, a highly respected and greatly missed cinematographer, with a screening of Country (2000), a rural drama written and directed by Kevin Liddy, on 30th May at 6:10pm.

The film, described by Conor McPherson as containing ‘some of the most beautifully lit cinematography ever produced in this country, rivalling the work of any of the world’s greatest directors of photography’, will be introduced by Kevin Liddy. The cast includes Des Cave, Lisa Harrow, Dean Pritchard, Gary Lydon, Marcella Plunkett and Laurence Kinlan.

Country, co-funded by the Irish Film Board and the Arts Council of Northern Ireland, won Best Film awards at the Galway Film Fleadh, the Verona International Film Festival in Italy and was nominated in the official selection SanSebastian, Spain. The film was Gilligan’s third collaboration with Liddy, with whom he also made the highly acclaimed short films Horse (1993) and A Soldier’s Song (1997).

Donal Gilligan made his feature director of photography debut in 1994 with Joe Comerford’s High Boot Benny. He went on to shoot many more Irish and international features including Endgame (Conor McPherson 2000), Dead Bodies (Robert Quinn 2003), Omagh (Pete Travis 2004) and Time of the Comet (Fatmir Koçi 2008). Gilligan’s numerous short film credits include The Visit (Orla Walsh 1992), After 68 (Stephen Burke 1994) and Stephen (Johnny Gogan 1990). Donal’s many TV credits include Black Wind White Land (Gerry Hoban 1993), John McGahern: A Private World (Pat Collins 2005) and Love/Hate (David Caffrey 2010).