Deirdre de Grae finds a lot to admire at the Irish Film Board World Premiere Short Films programme at the 29th Galway Film Fleadh.
The Galway Film Fleadh is an important platform for Irish short film. Hundreds of short filmmaking crews and cast attend the festival each year, helping to create the unique Fleadh buzz. There is a symbiotic relationship between festival and short film, if one portion is removed, the other will not thrive. The Irish Film Board had the Fleadh shorts equivalent of a ‘prime time’ slot – 12 noon on Saturday – and the atmosphere was phenomenal. The world premieres screened to a full house, including excited cast and crew of the short films. Although the IFB shorts premiere is always busy, this year seemed more popular than ever, with tickets selling out weeks before the screening date. Potential audience members crowded the steps and foyer of the Town Hall Theatre, hoping to acquire last-minute cancellation tickets for the sold-out programme. Those of us who were lucky enough to have a ticket were kept entertained for the packed programme: eleven shorts were shown, comprising six animations and five live-actions films. The short films screened were funded from three Irish Film Board schemes: Short Stories (live action or animation, max. budget of €20,000), Frameworks (animation only, max. budget of €46,000), and Focus Shorts (replacing the Signatures fund, max. budget of €50,000). This year, the theme given for the ‘Short Stories’ fund was ‘Tribes’ – filmmakers were asked to create films exploring the type of tribe that fascinated them the most. The short films were introduced by James Hickey, Chief Executive of the IFB, who later announced their commitment to supporting female writers and directors in the film industry – read more here
Although the shorts in this programme were impressive overall, two films stood out and lingered long after the screenings were over: Time Traveller, written and directed by Steve Kenny, and Late Afternoon, written and directed by Louise Bagnall, which was awarded ‘Best Animated Sequence in a Short Film’.
Late Afternoon, written and directed by Louise Bagnall (an animator on Song of the Sea), captures some very honest moments and emotions that are familiar to anyone who has an elderly relative. In this way, although located in Ireland, the film is absolutely universal. In her film, Louise allows us an insight into the memories of an elderly lady, ‘Emily’, acted wonderfully by Fionnula Flanagan. She shows us those moments when an elderly person may forget their age and once again relive their younger days, which often happens in the days before passing away. The memories represented are the gleeful moments Emily spent as a young girl, playing on the shore, falling in love – and the audience is swept into this joy with her. These memories are counteracted by the sadness of her current relationship with her daughter, who she no longer recognises. Louise’s film is definitely a ‘tear-jerker’ – possibly the most moving film I had seen all week, and I regretted wearing mascara that day!
Late Afternoon was produced by Nuala González Blanco at Cartoon Saloon.
Time Traveller, the first film funded under the new ‘Focus Shorts’ Irish Film Board scheme, was written and directed by Steve Kenny.
This was the best acting performance of the festival so far, that I had seen, by Tom Doran playing ‘Martin’, a young traveller boy. Although billed as starring the excellent and convincing Barry Ward, newcomer Tom Doran as Martin steals the show. Martin is obsessed with Back to the Future and has built an impressive DeLorean replica (for a small boy) using scraps and an old banger. There are some hilarious moments when Martin, armed with a hammer, whacks the car gleefully and very convincingly – I suspect young Tom enjoyed shooting those scenes. The comedic timing and visuals are excellent in Time Traveller, there seems to be the happy mixture of a good script, great cast and fantastic editing, all coming together to make a great short film. A lot of praise is due to the editor, Colin Campbell, who also edited Michael Inside and The Young Offenders (for which he was nominated for an IFTA) as well as many short films. The film has some more serious moments, involving an eviction, and touching on the inevitability of change and leaving things behind in life. In this way, the film is both heartbreaking and heart warming.
[vsw id=”225213009″ source=”vimeo” width=”425″ height=”344″ autoplay=”no”]
Time Traveller was produced by Forty Foot Pictures
Short films screened in this programme:
Macarooned (dir. Alan Short & Seamus Malone), Neon (dir. Rioghnach Ní Ghrioghair), Where is Eva Hipsey (dir. Orla McHardy), An Island (dir. Rory Byrne), Nice Night for It (dir. Rachel Carey), Late Afternoon (dir. Louise Bagnall), A Different Kind of Day (dir. Maria Doyle Kennedy), Bellwether (dir. Caroline Campbell), Departure (dir. Aoife Doyle), Deposits (dir. Trevor Courtney), and Time Traveller (dir. Steve Kenny).
Awards:
Late Afternoon (dir. Louise Bagnall) won Best Animated Sequence in a Short Film. An Island (dir. Rory Byrne) won the James Horgan Award for Best Animation
New Irish Shorts 7: IFB World Premiere Shorts screened on Saturday, 15th July 2017, as part of the 29th Galway Film Fleadh (11–16 July 2017).
