Tag Archives: Film

AN Ennis man could be set for Oscar gold after a film he penned has made the shortlist for nominations for the coveted award. Viva, a Spanish language film set in Havana written by Clare’s very own Mark O’Halloran has been named among nine movies shortlisted in the Foreign Language Film category. And in just a few short weeks, Mark the rest of the crew behind the acclaimed film will learn if they have made the final five nominees for next year’s 88th annual Academy Awards. Speaking to the Clare Champion this week Mark told us, “I’m very happy, I’m very surprised. It’s a very low budget film, made with a lot of dedication and heart. I’m pretty sure it’s the lowest budget film in the category so for it to have this impact is great. It’s been a good surprise to get on the shortlist, so fingers crossed, we’ll see how it goes.” The film, selected by the Irish …

SOLITUDE is an increasingly rare experience and one that many people don’t want. However, there are some who want nothing more from life than to withdraw from the familiar and late English man, Neal MacGregor, was one of those. He died alone, prematurely, at the age of 44, in a stone hen house that he couldn’t stand up in, where he lived without water, electricity or heating, on a tiny island off the Donegal coast. Neal left behind volumes of illustrated notebooks and diaries and his story is told in Neasa Ní Chianain’s film, The Stranger. Speaking about the film, Neasa said, “I don’t think it’s a depressing film, it’s a poignant film. It’s a story of somebody trying to find their place in the world and I think he does that in the end. It’s kind of a love story as well, about his relationship with an island woman.” Neasa lived in Donegal herself and was intrigued by the …

INTERNATIONALLY renowned wildlife cameraman and TV personality, Gordon Buchanan will give an illustrated talk at Glór on Wednesday next. Perhaps best known for his BBC One series The Bear Family and Me and The Polar Bear Family and Me, he is also a regular contributor to BBC’s Springwatch and Autumnwatch series. In recent years, he has made a name for himself as a filmmaker specialising in big cats. Filming lions and hyenas at night in the Serengeti in 1999 led to him making two films for the BBC’s Natural World series. His Glór appearance will be an evening of exciting personal recollections, inviting the audience into his world of weird and wonderful wildlife, including the footage of his encounter with a hungry polar bear. This terrifying segment of the series has been viewed millions of times on YouTube and will be recounted on the night. Speaking about that incident, he says, “We wanted to have a way of getting close …

JIMMY’S Hall, Ken Loach’s latest film, casts an eye back on an Ireland in the firm grip of unbending conservatism and an Ennis woman plays one of the lead roles. Simone Kirby plays the love interest of Jimmy Gralton, who set up a dance hall in 1930’s Leitrim, before being deported from his home country on a flimsy pretext. Another Ennis actor, Denise Gough, also has a smaller part. Speaking from London, Simone explained the story and how Gralton became a victim of the prevailing powers of the time. “The real Jimmy Gralton was deported from Ireland back in the ’30s. I’d never heard of him, we never learned about him in school or anything so it was news to me that anyone had been deported from Ireland. Basically, he had opened a dance hall on his father’s land and the Church were unimpressed, because education and dances had always been under their control. Suddenly, there was this dance hall …

  By Owen Ryan NEXT month June Rodgers will be hitting the road for her first ever nationwide tour, while she has a part in Mrs Brown D’Movie, which will also be released during the month. She will be at Glór on June 7 and she said that other commitments prevented her from going around the country up till now. “I’ve been asked for many years to do it, but with other commitments we just never got around to it. People have travelled to Dublin to see shows and they keep saying why don’t you come down. After the Christmas show at the Red Cow we decided we’d hit the road with this show and most of the cast were around which was great, because a lot of them go off and do other things and I may not see them until the following Christmas.” She says that all of her best known characters will be included in the show …

By Peter O’Connell GHOSTS of Kilrush, an autobiographical account of life in the West Clare town in the 1940s, is to be made into a Hollywood film by Los Angeles based Grafton Street Productions. The book, which was written by Joe Riley, who now lives in the Philippines, was published in 2003. He sold the film right for a mere dollar. “The story in the book is very simple,” Joe Riley told The Clare Champion this week. “You had Aunty May whose son was murdered at St Senan’s Well. I was a little kid, four years of age. I had no mum or no dad. What ended up happening was, two people mending each other. That’s what the story is about,” he explained. Chris Cusack is executive producer with Grafton Street Productions and is a former associate producer with the Disney ABC Television Group and an executive producer with Vin Di Bona Productions. “He has roots, I believe in Clare,” …

A NEW production company in East Clare is making waves on the media circuit. Having already featured on The Saturday Night Show, the father and son outfit even had to turn down an appearance on The Late Late Show. Fionnathan Productions is a not-for-profit collaboration between 17-year-old Fionn Crombie Angus and his father, Jonathan Angus, from Mountshannon. Fionn has a passion for filming, music, nature and a love for life. Over the last year the teenager, who has Down Syndrome, has been exploring his passions on video, as well as filming what others are passionate about. “We’ve been making videos for a couple of years just for fun. This summer the Tour de Munster was coming through and because they give their money to Down Syndrome, we wanted to do something. So we thought, let’s make a video. We talked about interviewing people around County Clare with Down Syndrome but Fionn came up with the brilliant question, ‘what do you …