A Feast Of Irish Shorts On The Menu At The Galway Film Fleadh
The Galway Film Fleadh will be serving up the latest slate of Short Shorts and Gearrscannáin films this Saturday 14th July. This year's Short Shorts theme ‘Food' has produced a great mixed spread of animated and live action shorts with something for all taste buds on the menu.
In Conor Ferguson's UN PEU PLUS, Madame Rousseau embarks on an epic journey to eat cakes with sweet abandon, but life has some bittersweet lessons to teach her. Conor previously directed the award winning shorts Atlantic and The Wednesdays which had huge festival success. Un Peu Plus is produced by Ailish Bracken for Blinder Films.
Cake is also on the menu in Luke McManus' HOMEMADE and Denis McArdle's BARRY'S BESPOKE BAKERY. Pensioner Tommy wants to impress his new lady friend by baking a cake but finds a gang of feral teenage girls have other ideas in Homemade which was written by Matthew Roche and produced by Annemarie Naughton for Park Films. In Barry's Bespoke Bakery everything has its place in a lavish wonderland of refined cakes except for Barry's talented employee Brian. Starring Michael Bates (Titanic: Blood & Steel, The Tudors) and Steve Gunn (Anton), the short was produced by Ben Keenan for Songway Films.
THE TREE written and directed by David Freyne tells the story of a man who struggles through an arid world, desperate for food, until he finds a distant apple tree. It stars Mark Doherty (A Film With Me In It, Mr Foley) and Jane McGrath (Joy, Lowland Fell) and was produced by Rachael O'Kane for Tilted Pictures. David and Rachael previously worked together on the short films The Mill and Passing which won the Best Irish Short at the Corona Cork Film Festival in 2010.
Birds and animals take centre stage in the animated shorts LEARNING TO FISH, BIRD FOOD and PET HATE. In Richard Keane's Bird Food which is produced by Laura Roche for Brown Bag Films, a man plans to eat his lunch in the park but the local pigeons have other ideas, while urban seagulls have to learn to catch fish once the summer is over in Teemu Auersalo's Learning to Fish. The short is produced by Nicky Gogan for Still Films (Pyjama Girls, Seaview) who previously worked with Teemu on the Framework short Trolley Boy.
Finally in Pet Hate directed by Andy Clarke a desperate pet-shop owner is constantly outsmarted by his pets who have decided that they don't want to be sold. It is produced by Sean McGrath for Brennus Productions.
The latest Gearrscannáin shorts EL TORO and SYLVIA will also premiere this Saturday.
EL TORO written and directed by Tomás Seoige and produced by David Clarke for El Zorrero Films tells the story of Cian, who is constantly bullied at school and whose home life isn't much better. Suddenly an opportunity arises to gain the respect of those around him by going head to head with a bull.... matador style!
SYLVIA is a love triangle with a twist that depicts love, jealousy and motorcycle maintenance in the wilds of Connemara. Written and directed by Seamus Moran, the short was produced by Marie Caffrey.
Both shorts were funded by Bord Scannán na hÉireann/the Irish Film Board's Gearrscannáin short film scheme. The scheme aims to produce Irish language short films that will appeal to a general audience.
Short Shorts and Gearrscannáin will premiere at the Galway Film Fleadh on Saturday 14th July at 14.00 in the Town Hall Theatre.