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Documentary

Housing Discrimination

22nd August 2016

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Shot in 1953, this film highlighted housing discrimination practiced by the unionist-controlled council in the town of Fintona in County Tyrone. It outlines the inequalities faced by the poorer, and usually nationalist, inhabitants, and details how new council houses are being given to unionist residents who are in less need of the houses than nationalists. […]

1980s-2000s

Lipservice

22nd August 2016

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The Oral Irish, a compulsory language exam dreaded by secondary school students, is the subject of this short directed by Paul Mercier. In a Dublin school, an examiner (Sean McGinley) meets a variety of students to test their proficiency in the Irish language. He encounters low levels of fluency but impressive levels of bravado as […]

Drama

Yu Ming is Ainm Dom

22nd August 2016

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Tired of his dead-end supermarket job, Yu Ming (Daniel Wu) decides to learn Irish and leave his home country of China for a new life overseas. With a simple spin of a globe he decides that Ireland will be his new home. When he researches Irish culture and learns that Gaelic is the country’s official […]

Drama

AQUA

22nd August 2016

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An Irish language short film, Aqua tells the tale of Nick and Laura, an enterprising young couple, who plan to record the sounds of Irish rivers and sell them to the Irish-American market claiming it has soothing powers. Directed by Edel O’Brien, this film looks at the flipside of Celtic Tiger Ireland when greed was […]

Drama

20 mins

Clare Sa Spéir

22nd August 2016

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A neglected and overworked housewife reaches her record-breaking point. Attempting to break a world record, mother and wife Clare is determined to live in a tree for 32 days. In her absence, her reluctant husband is forced to take on the heavy burden of her domestic duties. Meanwhile, despite the obstacles of torrential rain, loneliness […]

Gearrscannáin

Voyage to Recovery (Turas Téarnaimh)

22nd August 2016

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A young man (Joe Lynch) contracts tuberculosis to the dismay of his wife (Joan O’Hara) and to the shame of her aunt (Marie Keane). He recovers following a long spell convalescing in a tuberculosis sanatorium. A public information film infused with tension and humour and directed by actor/playwright Gerard Healy, this dramatized film looks at […]

Entertainment

SAFE CYCLING

22nd August 2016

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Cycling through a city can be a stressful experience. This public information film was produced by the National Film Institute (now IFI) for the Department of Local Government. The film made by filmmaker (later archivist) Liam Ó Laoghaire (aka O’Leary) advises on the best cycling practice around busy Dublin streets. This public safety film from […]

1930s-1960s

Stop Thief (Coisc an Gadaí)

22nd August 2016

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One of a series of dramatised public information films commissioned by the Department of Health and directed here by actor/playwright Gerard Healy. A young Dublin girl becomes gravely ill with diphtheria and her parents are filled with remorse for their failure to immunise her. The aim of this film, commissioned by the Department of Health, […]

Entertainment

Where Does The Money Go? (Cá n-Imíonn an t’Airgead)

22nd August 2016

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One of a series of public information films directed with verve and humour by actor/playwright Gerard Healy. This film was commissioned by the Department of Posts and Telegraphs in the impoverished years of the 1950s, in an attempt to encourage Irish spendthrifts to mend their frivolous ways. The film’s intention was to encourage people to […]

Documentary

The Silent Art

22nd August 2016

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This documentary, marking the directorial debut of Academy-Award nominated filmmaker Louis Marcus, is a luminous portrait of renowned Cork sculptor, Seamus Murphy (RHA). This first film-making endeavour by Louis Marcus serves as an invaluable record of his friend, sculptor Seamus Murphy, and his work in his studio in Blackpool, Cork, and on the streets of […]

Christmas Crackers

Moonmen

22nd August 2016

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Made by renowned and prolific director of dramas and documentaries, Kieran Hickey, this film shows members of the Half Moon Swimming Club braving the grim winter seas at Dublin’s South Wall in the winter of 1964/65. This was Hickey’s first film and provides the viewer an opportunity to eavesdrop on a moment in time. It […]

Drama

Faithful Departed

22nd August 2016

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This short documentary draws on the photographs of Robert French from the William Lawrence Collection held in the National Library. The photos illustrate the Dublin of 1904 which served as a backdrop to James Joyce’s Ulysses. Directed in 1968 by renowned drama and documentary maker Kieran Hickey, the film traces Joyce’s childhood and adolescence, his […]