A new short film by Feargal Ward and Adrian Duncan will have its world premiere next month at the IDFA (International Documentary Festival Amsterdam).
Memory Room (2018, 17 mins, Arts Council) was shot in the Arctic Circle and retraces the steps of an Irish forester sent to Finland in 1946 to secure poles for the rural electrification project being undertaken back home. The film has been selected for the Paradocs section of IDFA 2018 – a programme that showcases what is happening beyond the frame of traditional documentary filmmaking, on the borders between film and art, truth and fiction, and narrative and design.
The film was written and directed by Adrian Duncan (Bungaló Bliss) and Feargal Ward (Yximalloo, The Lonely Battle Of Thomas Reid). The actor Barry Ward (Jimmy’s Hall, Britannia, Save Me, Maze) was cast in the role of the forester. The film was photographed by Feargal Ward and Jonathan Sammon, with the score created by Declan Synnott. The film was funded in 2016 by the Arts Council as part of their Project Award strand. A version of the film and accompanying sculptural installation, which was titled The Soil Became Scandinavian, was selected for Ireland’s biennial, EVA International 2018 – curated by Inti Guerrero.
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Co-directors Feargal Ward and Adrian Duncan said, “It’s great to have the opportunity to bring this type of film to IDFA. Our film exists at the outer fringes of what might be called the ‘traditional documentary form’, which is of course an area we are very excited to work in. Making unconventional works that challenge the medium are incredibly hard to get funded. We can’t thank the Arts Council enough for making this possible – we are indebted to them for giving us the freedom and confidence to make this happen.”
Feargal Ward’s most recent feature documentary The Lonely Battle Of Thomas Reid will be released in cinemas in Ireland from October 19th before being released in the UK in November. It will screen on German TV (NDR) this year and Finnish TV in 2019.
