1. Contemporary Irish Cinema Summer 2014 Week 2
A history of Irish Film(making)

2. Looking Back An overview of Irish cinema might identify three periods:
Early cinema, silent & sound, ish
Rise of indigenous filmmaking, 1970s-1990ish
Contemporary Irish cinema, today

3. Early Cinema
The Star of Erin Theatre of Varieties (now the Olympia) showed first
exhibited movies in Ireland, April 20th, 1896

4. James Joyce, movie exhibitor
Joyce partnered with a number of Italian business men to open Dublin’s first movie-only theater, the Volta on December 20th, Mary Street
It initially didn’t go well and Joyce sold his share a year later. Stayed open until the 1940s.

5. The early days
Early cinema coincides with incendiary period in Irish history (Easter rising of 1916)
Culture main conduit for expression of nationalism
Literature-focused “revival” wove myth of Irishness both antiquarian and revolutionary
Although writing inspired by peasant tradition, audience was primarily metropolitan/m.c.
Film, however, proletarian form and Irish both rural/urban quickly embraced the medium

6. Early production
1917 Irish newsreel started by Norman Whitten, manager of General Film Supply, Dublin
mix of sporting events, religious pageantry, political events
“Britain for the British, Irish events for the Irish
The “Sinn Feinn Review” 1919, Brits close it down
Sidney Olcott owner/producer of Kalem Film Co.
Parents from Cork (he’s Canadian)
Big US producer in 1910s, scripts and locations
1910 travels to Ireland to shoot The Lad From Old Ireland

7. Politics and Pretty Pictures
Between O’Kalems made 30 pictures dealing with Irish history/Irish American experience
Historical melodramas with rural settings
The “British” typically shown not demonized as much as you would expect, just out of place i.e. go home.
Some indigenous filmmaking
Irish Destiny (1926) IRA volunteer during the war of independence, politics, passion, post-card views

8. The sound era Dominated by Hollywood and British film productions
Ardmore Studios opened by Irish government in 1958
The Man of Aran , Robert Flaherty (1935)
The Quiet Man, John Ford (1952)
Ryan’s Daughter, David Lean (1970)
10 million budget, most expensive “Irish” film, made by a British director for Hollywood (MGM)

9. Ardmore Studios

10. John & Angelica Huston

11. John Huston
Important/successful Hollywood director (Maltese Falcon, Asphalt Jungle, etc.)
Moved to Ireland to work/live from s
Supporter of Irish film industry, chaired report calling for government support for Irish film in 1970
Last film The Dead (1987), from James Joyce short story

12. “New” Wave Irish 1970s-1980s
Like “new” Hollywood of the early 70s, a new set of young Irish directors begin to make films influenced by the post-war European cinemas, particularly FNW and Latin American 3rd Cinema.
Directors of this generation include Bob Quinn, Pat Murphy, Joe Comerford, Cathal Black.
Varied types of films but all involved in to establish a continuity of production dealing with indigenous stories.
Worked together (AIP) on each others films, lobbied

13. Indigenous Storytelling
First Irish Film Board ( ) begins to financially support indigenous filmmaking by Irish filmmakers.
Charged with developing an industry as well as a film culture
Tension between these two
Annual budget of $750K
Contributed to some important films and helped start the career of Neil Jordan, first feature Angel (82)
Political/economic and ideological divisions led to government closing board in 1987, citing poor return on capital. Replaced with Section 35, tax breaks.
Two years later, My Left Foot (1989) won two Oscars

14. Indigenous Filmmaking
Stylistically less polished, experimental in structure, more open-ended
Darker subjects that were than antithesis of the landscapemelodramas
Bob Quinn’s first film Poitin (1978) shot in the west of Ireland in Irish, first Irish feature to be shot in Irish
First film to receive an Arts Council grant for the script
Instead of beauty, land is shown as physically hostile and characters as often unloveable and self-interested

15. Indigenous Filmmaking
Others tackled non-rural subjects including inner-city life, Cathal Black, Down the Corner (1978) and Pigs (1984), Joe Comerford, Withdrawal, 1974)
The role(s) of women in Irish society, particularly Pat Murphy, Maeve (1982) and Anne Devlin (1984)
The negative roles of the Catholic Church (Our Boys, Cathal Black, 1980), Bishop Story, Bob Quinn, 1994)

16. The Irish Film Board, 2nd go round
Irish Film Board/Bord Scannán na hÉireann reformed in 1993 by the first Minister for Arts, Culture and the Gaeltacht, Michael D. Higgins.
Agreed upon the morning that Neil Jordan won Oscar screenplay for Crying Game
Funding began at 1 million Euros, today approx 16.
New tax incentives i.e. Section 481
New structures and new funding means more Irish films made in the 1990s than in all the previous 9 decades put together.

17. Funding Indigenous Films
Mix of funding
IFB “schemes” including script development
w/32
Funding from TV (post theatrical distribution)
RTE and BBC
Irish and International private investment utilizing tax incentives i.e. co-productions
Distribution deals

18. Joe Comerford Born 1947 Went to National College of Art & Design
RTE in early 1970s as cameraman
Left to make independent films
Films are elliptical and narratively complex
Focused on margins of Irish society, often tied to the political/cultural implications of violence related to the situation of Northern Ireland
Reefer and The Model (1988) film premiered in Galway that year.