DIFF 2024 Podcast: Filmmakers’ Roundtable

We are delighted to be partnering with Dublin International Film Festival (DIFF) to bring you a series of podcasts with filmmakers featuring in this year’s programme.

DIFF 2024 runs 22nd February – 2nd March. Explore the programme and get tickets here.

In this podcast, Gemma Creagh talks DIFF short films with Tania Notaro, Derek Ugochukwu, Jessica Patterson and Dennis Harvey.

Film Ireland Podcast · DIFF 2024 Podcast: Filmmakers’ Roundtable

Postpartum (WRI/DIR: Tania Notaro)

Postpartum depression becomes a hellish nightmare in this surreal psychological short from actor/writer/director Tania Notaro. The expectations of motherhood become spectres which haunt recent mother Mary, her psychosis rendered through warping visuals and an unnerving soundscape.

Trailer

Postpartum screens as part of DIFF Shorts – Programme 3 on 29th February at 16:00 at the Light House Cinema. Tickets.

Pediment (DIR/WRI: Derek Ugochukwu)

Still Image captured by Madeline Mulqueen

When Timmy skips school to invite his estranged grandmother to his tenth birthday party, long-repressed issues of race and heritage resurface, threatening the cords of the family.

Pediment screens as part of the Screen Ireland Shorts Programme 1 on 24th February 2024 at 14:00 at the Light House Cinema. Tickets.

Worry World (DIR: Jessica Patterson • WRI Hugh O’Connor)

A young factory worker forever dreams in color of escaping her black-and-white world, where every regimented thought is on display, and thinking in color is forbidden. Until she connects with someone who thinks differently too – do they dare to try and make their escape for real?

Trailer

Worry Worldscreens as part of the Screen Ireland Shorts Programme 2 on 24th February 2024 at 16:00 at the Light House Cinema. Tickets.

The Building and Burning of a Refugee Camp (DIR: Dennis Harvey)

Three men seeking sanctuary in Ireland find themselves caught on the streets between a hostile asylum policy and an increasingly militant far-right.

The Building and Burning of a Refugee Camp screens as part of Documentary Shorts on 27th February 2024 at 18:30 at The Circular. Tickets

Meet the Filmmakers

Tania Notaro

Tania Notaro by City Headshots Dublin

Tania Notaro is a multi-award-winning writer, director and actress. She holds an MA in Screenwriting for Film and TV, is a Warner Brothers Scholar, and is an alumnus of the Series Mania Institute. She was a recipient of the Actor as Creator Award where she wrote, directed and starred in her debut short Glitterbug which recently won her Best Emerging Female Director at IndieCork. She is the winner of Virgin Media’s Sharp Shorts Award and made her second award-winning short Postpartum, which she too, wrote, directed, co-produced and starred in. Tania was selected for Screen Ireland’s Spotlight scheme and currently has multiple projects in development.

Derek Ugochukwu

Derek Ugochukwu is a Dublin-based filmmaker who aims to tell modern-day fiction of the black-Irish experience through various genres. His credits include; To All My Darlings, You’re Not Home, Pediment. Pediment is produced by Robert Higgins at Harp Media Films and funded by Screen Ireland as part of the FOCUS shorts.

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/pediment_film/

Jessica Patterson

Jessica is an award-winning director and filmmaker from Dublin, Ireland whose work ranges from short films and music videos to directing large-scale, multimedia television production. Jess is currently a director with BAFTA winning production studio JAM Media, working with clients including Nickelodeon, Amazon Prime, PBS America and BBC, and has recently completed commissioned pieces with Mo Farah for Comic Relief UK and the award-winning short film ‘The Voyage’ with Christy Moore and RTÉ.

Her most recent short film ‘Worry World’ (2023), written by Hugh O’Conor and produced by Shauna Cullen, won the Oscar qualifying James Horgan Award following its premiere screening at the Galway Film Fleadh 2023 and received the audience award for Best Animated Short after its US premier at Newport Beach Film Festival 2023.

Dennis Harvey

Dennis makes non-fiction cinema about migration, identity and bureaucracy. With a cinema vérité approach and a particular sensitivity to the human, his work interrogates the political through the personal. He is a member of Noncitizen, a film collective which works to hand over the means of making films to migrants. His debut feature, I Must Away (2023), received the honourable mention at Docs Ireland 2023, and is currently on the international festival circuit.

Upcoming screenings of BBRC will be listed on production company MDEMC’s instagram https://www.instagram.com/_mdemc/ and screenings of I Must Away will be listed here https://www.instagram.com/imustaway_film/

Dublin International Film Festival (DIFF) is Ireland’s premier film event, dedicated to presenting the best in contemporary and classic world cinema. It brings the world to Ireland and showcases Ireland to the world. With a rich history spanning several decades, DIFF showcases a diverse selection of films, hosts industry events, and fosters a vibrant film culture in Dublin.

Over the past 22 years, it has screened more than 1,600 international films from over 52 countries. The Festival has hosted over 600 high profile guests, including Al Pacino, Angela Lansbury, Brendan Gleeson, Daniel Day-Lewis, Danny DeVito, Ennio Morricone, Joss Whedon, Julie Andrews, Kristin Scott Thomas, Stanley Tucci, and Stellan Skarsgård.