Clock Tower Animaton – Lenny Abrahamson Filmmaker Playlist
Our inaugural playlist, curated by director Lenny Abrahamson – renowned for his multi-Academy Award nominated Room (2015) and acclaimed independent films like Adam & Paul (2004), Garage (2007), What Richard Did (2012) and Frank (2014) – visits the Irish Film Institute to select his top picks of materials preserved in the IFI Irish Film Archive from the IFI Archive Player.
The films he has selected—from early stop-motion playfulness in Clock Tower Animation (1910s) to homemade sci-fi/horror by cinema-enthusiasts the Spence twins – span decades and counties, but all demonstrate a fascination and experimentation with film and story-telling that informs his unique way of seeing the world.
The Youghal Clock Tower is a light-hearted and playful exploration of the possibilities of animation in its infancy. In this short, the well-known landmark is depicted dancing into frame as the clock gate comes to life, spinning and dancing through the main street of the Cork town. It is likely that James Horgan was one of the earliest animators in Irish film history, as he experimented with film production techniques including stop-motion animation and the use of models, as well as retouching still photographs. The Horgan Brothers’ films (1910-1920) are some of the earliest moving images made in Ireland. The brothers were photographers who turned their attention to the moving image, eventually opening a cinema in their home town of Youghal, Co Cork. It was here they screened their newsreel-style films, which they named The Youghal Gazette.
