Coimisiún na Meán
Sound and Vision is a broadcast funding scheme that supports the production of high quality television and radio programmes relating to Irish culture, heritage, and experience; global affairs that impact on the State and countries other than the State; and programmes that improve media and adult literacy. Managed by Coimisiún na Meán (formerly the BAI) and funded through the television licence fee, over the last two decades the Scheme has supported the production of thousands of hours of English and Irish language programming that has been broadcast free to air across the breath of public service, commercial and community television and radio channels.
Sound and Vision has funded a diverse range of producers, production companies, and broadcasters to produce a wide range of culturally relevant material for Irish audiences, including documentaries, entertainment, drama including feature films, animation and educational programming covering subjects such as arts, culture and history, contemporary society, science, nature and the environment and children’s television. A comprehensive collection of all material funded under the auspices of Sound and Vision is catalogued and preserved by the IFI Irish film Archive. We present here a selection of titles from that collection.
Sound and Vision Funded Films
Waiting for the Light
This compelling biography shines a spotlight on one of the titans of Irish cinema George Morrison.
Waiting for the Light is a moving and illuminating portrait of the then 85-year-old Irish film auteur, George Morrison. Ciarín Scott explores his work, his life and his love in frank and intimate interviews interwoven with previously unseen stills and films from his extensive private collection.
Creator of the internationally acclaimed Mise Eire, Ireland’s first feature documentary, as well as the hugely successful Saoirse, Scott uncovers his triumphs, his passion for film, his obsessive perfectionism and his great personal charm and humour.
Colman Doyle: Ábhar Machnaimh
This feature length documentary profiles veteran Irish photographer, Colman Doyle, who has documented almost every major historical event in Ireland over a 50 year period.
Directed by James Kelly, it explores Doyle’s vast archive of photographs covering the political, social and economic history of Ireland – both North and South – through the second half of the 20th century. The film follows Doyle as he returns to shoot photos of West Kerry, reconnects with his early work as a press photographer and takes an in-depth look at the work in his collection over the last few decades.
Babyface Goes to Hollywood
Forgotten Irish boxing legend Jimmy McLarnin, aka ‘The Babyfaced Assassin’, a journeyman brawler originally from County Down battled his way to fortune and glory in the 1940s via two welterweight world championship titles, and a whole heap of controversy to become one of the greats of Irish boxing history. Director Andrew Gallimore recounts McLarnin’s Greatest Hits (literally) with considerable relish, illuminated by a wealth of archive footage, much of it previously unseen, and punctuated by commentary from McLarnin himself (via vintage audio) and a host of colourful ringside experts, not least legendary author Budd (On the Waterfront) Schulberg.
Grandpa, Speak To Me In Russian
In Grandpa, Speak To Me In Russian Louis Lentin explores the history of his paternal grandfather Kalman Lentin, who came to Ireland in the mid -1890s from the small, Jewish village of Zidik, North West Lithuania. Kalman Lentin was one of thousands of Jews who escaped the repressive Russian regime and one of few who came to Ireland. In this docudrama, Louis Lentin and his son, Miki, journey through the Baltic countries to uncover the story of the family and the lost world of the Jewish village.
Kathleen Lynn: The Rebel Doctor
Kathleen Lynn: The Rebel Doctor is a documentary which tells the previously unknown story of an extraordinary Irish woman.
Kathleen Lynn was born in County Mayo in 1874 into a wealthy protestant family. As a young woman she was deeply affected by the abject poverty and disease that ravaged the lives of local people in the aftermath of the Great Famine. At just 16 years of age she decided to become a doctor. In 1919 she established and founded St. Ultan’s Children’s Hospital, an initiative which helped to lower the infant mortality rate in Ireland. She was also politically active and served in Connolly’s Irish Citizen Army in 1916, was involved in the Suffragette movement, and served as Sinn Féin executive and as a TD.