Screen Directors Guild of Ireland

Dear Members,

Fellow member Kealan O'Rourke would like to invite you to a screening of his latest film 'Fairycatcher' at the Lighthouse Cinema on Saturday 5th September at 13:00.

If interested please RSVP to Kealan at kealanorourke@gmail.com

Documentary about Irish Jazz Bassist to Screen on RTE One on August 4th

“This beautiful and moving film will haunt you for years” - Irvine Welsh, author of Trainspotting

Dublin, Ireland, August 4 – The intertwined yet separate lives that define an adult son’s relationship with his parents are explored in “A Song for Dad,” a narrative-style feature documentary that will screen on RTE One Television on August 4.

This intimate film about the relationship between director Niall McKay and his jazz musician father Jim reveals an absorbing and moving story of two journeys back home to Ireland.

As Niall helps Jim prepare for his return to Ireland after the death of his second wife, father and son recall their family’s struggle in handling the depression, alcoholism, and tragic death of Niall’s mother – and its far-reaching effects on both men, even thirty years later -- as each embarks upon a new phase in their lives. The time that father and son spend together at the crossroads is short, but healing. For while Jim is returning home after decades of living abroad, Niall is gathering the courage to redefine his view of family and relationships – and even start his own.

Beautifully shot in Ireland, France, Switzerland and the USA, and scored with Jim's bass-playing, the film is a unique and thought-provoking portrait of an Irish father and his son, a personal documentary, and a road movie. Jim McKay compares the nature of jazz music with living his own life in the same improvisational style. "You have to busk it," he advises his son.

The trailer for “A Song for Dad” can be viewed here

Press
Niall McKay’s cathartic documentary The Bass Player: A Song for Dad was pretty and deeply moving, traversing as it did McKay’s relationship with his father and delving into his mother’s alcoholism and death many years before. Film Ireland Magazine.

Production Team
Producer/Director/Camera Niall McKay won an Emmy for his documentary "Sikhs in America" about the challenges of being Sikh in the US. The documentary was shown nationally on PBS in the United Sates.

Producer Seamus Duggan spent the last decade at the head of Filmbase. Before working in Filmbase Seamus produced the documentary 'Harvest Emergency' and "The History of the Irish Sweepstakes'.

Producer/Camera Marissa Aroy, won an Emmy last year and was a producer on the HBO documentary program, "Rehab," and a production supervisor on the Academy-nominated documentary 'The Mushroom Club.”

BAFTA award-winning editor Tony Cranstoun's credits include “The Royle Family”, “Queer as Folk” and "Cracker". Cranstoun edited Paul Watson's landmark documentary "The Dinner Party."

About the Media Factory:
The Media Factory specializes in producing short and long form documentaries, drama and television programming in Europe and the United States.

Contact

Niall McKay - Director
The MediaFactory
www.mediafactory.tv
USA + 1 510 638 4871
Ireland + 353 87 285 0063
email niall@mediafactory.tv

Seamus Duggan - Producer
Portarlington Mulitmedia
Phone +353 57 862 3732
mobile +353 86 396 9775
seamus.duggan@gmail.com

The FÁS Screen Training Ireland e-zine with news and upcoming courses. Click here to view.

Member Frank Kelly is working on a unique project through the micro-blogging site twitter.com. It's called 140, and involves 140 filmmakers in 140 locations around the world film simultaneously for 140 seconds. (140 is the amounts of character allowed per message on twitter) So far he has 120 filmmakers attached to the project, including Utah filmmakers Ryan Little and Adam Abel, producers of the WW1 film Saints and Soldiers, and Zach Helm writer of Stranger than Fiction, writer/director of Mr. Magoriums Magic Emporium. He still has some places left so if you’d like to get involved you can contact him by email at frank@palestoneproductions.com.

The theme of the project is connect. He is asking the filmmaker to capture whatever it is that connects them to their home, it can be anything. He will then edit the footage into a feature length documentary capturing the same moments in time from all around the world. For more about the project you can visit his blog at www.frankkelly.blogspot.com also www.140faq.blogspot.com and his twitter www.twitter.com/frankwkelly. Click here for some recent press.

SDGI publishes the results of 2009 Director’s Survey

We have collated some material on International On-line Piracy.

Creation & Internet Law
DGA - Soderbergh Oral Testimony
DGA - Additional Written Testimony

Member David Lawless (info@davidlawless.net) is interested in hearing from any members who have dealt with the United Film Productions agency. If you are currently signed to this agency or have any comments to make about them please email David directly at the above email address.

Congratulations to Tomm Moore on his recent win at Cartoon Movie in Lyon.

The Arts Council has announced the recipients of its first Reel Art awards.  Reel Art is an Arts Council scheme designed to provide film artists with an opportunity to make highly creative and imaginative documentaries on an artistic theme. Operated in association with Filmbase and the Jameson Dublin International Film Festival, Reel Art films are made for theatrical exhibition and will be premiered at the Jameson Dublin International Film Festival in February 2010. Member Conor Horgan received the award for The Beholder - a film which explores the nature and process of contemporary Irish portrait artists and their relationship with their subjects.

4 Tickets for €100 to Tom Stoppard’s ‘The Real Thing’
Booking on 01 8744045 / 01 8746042

Liam O'Mochain’s second feature film ‘WC’ will open exclusively in Ireland via digital cinema on March 13th 2009 across the country. “O'Mochain says ‘we are delighted to be the first Irish film to go exclusively digital, which is the future of cinema technology with increased distribution opportunities and screening quality. We are thankful to Real Image in India for making the digital print available, to Digital Cinema Ltd and to Movies@Dundrum, SGC Dungarvan and the Eye Cinema Galway for working with us on the Irish cinema release.” The filmmakers have also signed a deal with Cinetic Media of New York to bring ‘WC’ onto digital platforms worldwide.

‘WC’ has also been selected to screen at the upcoming Las Vegas International Film Festival April 9-13th 2009.  O Mochain comments “we are delighted to have our US Premiere at the Las Vegas International Film Festival, as the festival has a particular emphasis on independent cinema and it is particularly apt given the main character’s former gambling habits”. WC had its world premiere at the Dublin International Film Festival, where it sold out. The film recently screened at the Galway Film Fleadh, Montreal World Film Festival, Cannes Film Festival, Cairo International Film festival and Waterford Film Festival where it won the Best Feature Film award.

‘WC’ is a quirky drama set in and around the toilets of a Dublin Jazz bar. It follows a day in the life of two toilet attendants, Jack (Liam O Mochain –‘The Book That Wrote Itself’), an Irish guy who has recently been released from prison and Katya (Julia Wakeham - ‘The Tudors’), a Russian girl who has come to Ireland to find a better life. As Jack and Katya deal with argumentative customers, an interfering bar manager and an inept thief, they form an unlikely friendship with one another in the last place one would expect – the toilets. Described by the director as a “social drama”, the film examines topical issues like racism, social integration, trafficking and low paid workers in an everyday setting.

Every single production entering preproduction in the UK, listed alphabetically with shoot dates, including overseas productions coming to shoot in the UK and new production companies starting up, but not student films or profit share.

All in one easy to use monthly magazine (or weekly online).

Information is not repeated so each month’s content of between 170 and 200 productions, is new.

Now in its 9th YEAR, APN is the leading source of preproduction information in the UK, used by BBC, ITV, Syco, Universal Music, camera operators, makeup artists, directors, location finders and for some strange reason Madonna.

In this issue of Advance Production News
34 UK Feature Films
29 UK Documentaries
31 UK Television Dramas
12 Light Entertainment Programmes
8 TV Comedies
7 UK Lifestyle Programmes
And more

For a sample pack email your postal address to alan@crimsonuk.com Or have a look at the website at www.crimsonuk.com

View Thomas' video here