Short Documentary Review: Sober Minds

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This smart new offering from Charlo Johnson is a stand out piece of documentary filmmaking. Charlo’s hard work and dedication to the art is evident in all 17 minutes of this ode to the trials of urban life; both human and animal.

Widely acclaimed and published Nature Photographer, Paul Hughes is our urban safari guide; with photographs syndicated throughout Europe, America and Asia, we learn that Paul rates getting onto the front page of the Irish papers and the response he gets from an Irish audience as the best thrill.

Along with insights into his stunning work, we learn about Paul’s personal life, growing up in Dublin, the sacrifices he’s made and why he now likes sober minds.

With award winning cinematography from Andrei Ghenoside and Jaroslava Waldeck, editing by Mark Gilleece and illustrations from Toshiki Nakamura; Sober Minds is a visually superb film.

The ethereal sounds of Rob Smith’s Swedish Orchestra (with a brief interjection by Ministry) give this film a therapeutic quality and a feeling that at the end of the 17 minutes we’ve all been on a journey of discovery.

I highly recommend this film and know that all involved are destined for great things.

 

Watch the Sober Minds trailer here.

For more information on Sober Minds including information on screenings please click here.

 

 

Taste of Cavan #tasteofcavan #Cavan #discoverireland #thisiscavan 

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Tasty bit of Cavan. Image copyright Julie Corcoran.


Each year the Taste of Cavan grows just that little bit tastier; filling three indoor arenas at the Cavan Equestrian Centre just off the N3. 

But come early, the huge free carpark fills quickly and with enough to interest the whole family for a full day, very few cars leave before late afternoon. 

Taste of Cavan, 12th & 13th August 2016.

Gone Viral review.

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No, this review hasn’t gone viral, but the lads behind the Vine account Fupin EEjits have.

With followers in the hundreds of thousands; Senan Byrne and Eddie Whelan are the international social media sensation you’ve probably never heard of, unless you Vine.

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Senan Byrne’s profile on Vine.

Thankfully director Charlo Johnson’s latest offering, Gone Viral, gives this pair of psychiatric nurses an opportunity  to explain the who, what, when of Vine and how going viral has affected them both in a positive sense (direct messages from Swedish models) and in a negative way (Eddie’s nose apparently gets a lot of flack).

Gone Viral

Gone Viral publicity poster.

Narrated by Senan and Eddie themselves, the film feels like you’re sitting in a pub with the lads sharing a pint.

Gone Viral reveals more about the psyche of the 21st century bearded Irish male than a Snapchat from last year’s Leprechaun convention on Croagh Patrick.

The film premiered in July at the Galway Film Fleadh before making its way to the amazing Guth Gafa International Documentary Festival in August.

At only eighty Vines long, Gone Viral is definitely worth a watch, toilet humour aside, they’re very funny guys.

 

 

 

66 Days, the film review

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Bobby Sands Rhythm of Time portrait I did a couple of years ago.

Brendan J Byrne’s latest film, 66 Days, is a documentary about the hunger-striker, Bobby Sands.  HD images of marching bands and garish seventies dance clips, juxtaposed with shaky archive footage and interviews create the narrative while haunting animations illustrate Bobby’s words from his diary;

“I had a visit this morning with two reporters, David Beresford of The Guardian and Brendan Ó Cathaoir of The Irish Times. Couldn’t quite get my flow of thoughts together. I could have said more in a better fashion”. Bobby Sands, 3rd March 1981.

Ó Cathaoir is interviewed for the film. As a journalist, he laments, he always endeavoured to aggrieve the comfortable while comforting the aggrieved.

Fintan O’Toole’s distinctive voice also adds a liberal credence to the film;

“It is not those who can inflict the most but those who can suffer the most that will win” Fintan O’Toole paraphrasing Cork Mayor, Terence MacSwiney, who died on hunger strike in 1920.

 

As the film presents testimonies from both sides of the conflict, the narrative regularly refers back to MacSwiney’s observations on suffering as if to ask the audience; who is suffering here? Who is doing the inflicting?

Over the course of the film we learn that the act of hunger-striking dates back in Irish culture over a thousand years, designed to empower the oppressed by shaming the oppressor. Along with exploring the physical effects of starvation on the human body, we learn, through Bobby’s own words, the mental suffering also endured;

“The body fights back sure enough, but at the end of the day everything returns to the primary consideration, that is, the mind. The mind is the most important”. Bobby Sands, 17th March 1981.

This documentary is very well put together and though I know Brendan, the director, was disappointed he didn’t get a chance to feature more of the women in Bobby’s life, it’s understandable seeing as the events are still controversial and painful for many people involved (two middle-aged men either side of me were in tears at the Guth Gafa screening I attended).

Having said that, 66 Days is an absorbing, intense film that I hope many audiences of all ages (not just in Ireland), will get a chance to see.