Collections

253 films

Amharc Éireann: A View of Ireland

Gael Linn was established in 1953 to promote and revitalise Irish language and culture through a variety of means – which would eventually include music, film and educational initiatives. A most successful and accessible early venture was the establishment in 1956 of the Amharc Éireann newsreel, the first regular indigenous cinema newsreel since the Irish Events series of the 1920s.  The series was seeded in 1955 when Ernest Blythe, then Chairman of Comdháil Násiúnta na Gaelige (the national Irish language council), lent Gael Linn £100 to produce a short film for cinema. This “pilot” would become the first of a long-running newsreel series – Gael Linn’s Amharc Éireann. From 1956 to mid-1957, the series consisted of short single-story films that were distributed to cinemas throughout the country on a monthly basis. Their popularity was immediate, and by 1959 the series had evolved into a more traditional newsreel with each issue containing three or four separate stories from around the country. The series continued until 1964, when the immediacy of television as a means of delivering daily news to the Irish public lead to a marked decline in the relevance and popularity of the cinema newsreel.  A total of 267 editions of the Amharc Éireann series were produced. The key production team comprised: Colm Ó Laoghaire (producer); Jim Mulkerns, Val Ennis and Vincent Corcoran (camera); Peter Hunt (sound); Breandán Ó hEithir and Máirtín Ó Cadhain (scriptwriter); Pádraic Ó Raghallaigh (voiceover) and Gerard Victory (composer). Other crew members included Nick O’Neill, Morgan O’Sullivan and George Morrisson. Although Gael Linn’s Amharc Éireann production ceased in late 1964, its impact on Irish cultural identity still resonates today. The range of Irish interest subjects covered (from hard news stories to magazine-style items) provides vivid snapshots of the rapid development of modern Ireland during a particularly progressive period under the stewardship of T.K. Whitaker, Secretary of the Department of Finance, and Taoiseach Seán Lemass.  Economic and industrial progress is documented through a broad array of stories such as the introduction of innovative prefabrication in schools; the opening of a chewing gum factory; and the launch of Ireland’s first oil-fired power-station. Urban development is seen in the demolition of the Theatre Royal and the old Abbey Theatre, and the building of the Adelphi Cinema. International visitors such as Louis Armstrong, Margaret Rutherford and Princess Grace are captured, while ordinary folk enjoy ploughing championships, fleadhanna cheoil, sporting events, ballroom dancing, hunting, shooting and lovely legs competitions.  IFI is delighted to present 250 stories from the Amharc Éireann series, with the support and partnership of Gael Linn and our app provider, Axonista. Viewers are invited to explore the collection, search using our new interactive map or browse by decade to reveal stories connected to places of personal or historical significance. The films in the Amharc Éireann collection provide a visual record of Ireland in the 1950s and 1960s.   The films reflect the sensibility and sensitivities of the periods in which they were made.  The commentary within some of the films may include language and attitudes which were prevalent and socially acceptable at the time of production but which may less so by today’s more enlightened standards.   Irish subtitles and descriptions kindly provided by Gael Linn, with thanks to Réamonn Ó Ciaráin, Eve Nic an Phapa, Jane O’Connor, and Máire Harris.  Bunaíodh Gael Linn sa bhliain 1953 chun an teanga agus an cultúr Gaelach a chur chun cinn agus a athbheochan trí réimse bealaí – lena n-áirítear ceol, scannáin agus tionscnaimh oideachais de réir a chéile. Ba é bunú nuachtríleanna Amharc Éireann sa bhliain 1956 an chéad nuachtríl dhúchasach rialta do phictiúrlanna ó Irish Events sna 1920idí. Bhí Amharc Éireann ar cheann de na tionscadail luatha ba rathúla agus ab inrochtana de chuid Gael Linn ag an am. Cuireadh tús leis an tsraith sa bhliain 1955 nuair a thug Ernest Blythe, Cathaoirleach Chomhdháil Náisiúnta na Gaeilge (comhairle náisiúnta na Gaeilge) £100 ar iasacht do Gael Linn chun gearrscannán a léiriú don phictiúrlann. Ba é an “píolóta” seo an chéad cheann de shraith fhada nuachtríleanna – Amharc Éireann de chuid Gael Linn. Ó 1956 go lár 1957, bhíodh scannáin ghearra aon-scéil sa tsraith a dháiltí ar phictiúrlanna ar fud na tíre gach mí. Bhí an-tóir orthu láithreach, agus faoi 1959 bhí an tsraith tagtha chun cinn ina nuachtscannán seachtainiúil níos traidisiúnta agus de ghnáth bhíodh trí nó ceithre scéal ar leith ó gach cearn den tír i ngach eagrán. Lean an tsraith ar aghaidh go dtí 1964, nuair a tháinig laghdú suntasach ar ábharthacht agus ar an éileamh a bhí ar nuachtscannáin na pictiúrlainne mar gheall ar láithreacht na teilifíse mar mhodh chun nuacht laethúil a sheachadadh do phobal na hÉireann. Táirgeadh 267 eagrán san iomlán

12 films

Flora Kerrigan: Dream Maker

Filmmaker Flora Kerrigan, born in Cork in 1940, attended Crawford Art College before becoming an active member of the Cork Cine Club in the late 1950s and 1960s. Over eight years, she crafted remarkable animation and live-action shorts on 8mm film, earning international accolades and an airing on RTÉ. The surreal playfulness of her animations belies the painstaking meticulousness of their production, while her live-action films, featuring friends and family, are absurd, comedic, haunting and, most strikingly, explore female sexuality and desire. Many of her live-action films are located on the recognisable streets of Cork city. Speaking to ‘The Cork Examiner’ in 1961, Kerrigan explained that “it takes almost 2,000 cut-outs for a two-minute cartoon … it’s work that requires infinite patience but it is very satisfying and less expensive than ordinary filmmaking.” Kerrigan’s filmmaking life appears to have ended when she moved to London in the late 1960s. However, she pursued a creative life, taking photographs and becoming involved in activism through the Women’s Liberation Movement. She also wrote poetry under the pseudonym Eamer O’Keefe, where some of her earlier themes and her interest in graphics and typography elements were carried through from her filmmaking. Kerrigan’s work was recently rediscovered through a collaboration between the IFI Irish Film Archive and Maynooth University. Flora looked after her films minding them carefully in Cork and London and bringing them home when she returned to Ireland some years ago to the care of her family. Her films came to the attention of Dr Sarah Arnold (MU) and Kasandra O’Connell (IFI) during their collaboration on the Women in Focus research project. The films are now preserved in the IFI Irish Film Archive. We have presented this collection with a new music accompaniment by renowned avant-garde free-improvisational pianist Paul G. Smyth and double bass virtuoso John Edwards. Restored with support from ACE – Association des Cinémathèques Européennes and the EU Creative Europe MEDIA programme as part of A Season of Classic Films 2024. This presentation was funded through the Research Ireland New Foundations Grant Number NF/2024/11760. Flora Kerrigan: Dream Maker was identified as part of the Women In Focus project, which was funded by Research Ireland and the Arts and Humanities Research Council as part of the UK-Ireland Digital Humanities scheme. The project was a collaboration between the University of East Anglia, Maynooth University and the University of Sussex, with the IFI Irish Film Archive and East Anglian Film Archive as archive partners.

8 films

Margo Harkin: Radical Witness

Margo Harkin is one of Ireland’s most versatile and respected filmmakers – having directed and produced fiction and documentary films for over forty years. Her work includes an invaluable chronicle of Northern Ireland’s recent political history.  After graduating in Fine Art from the Ulster College of Art and Design in 1974 Harkin worked as an art teacher and community worker in socially deprived areas of Derry. She joined Field Day Theatre Company in 1980 as an Assistant Stage Manager on Brian Friel’s Translations, before going on to work as a stage designer for the company.  In 1984, Harkin co-founded Derry Film & Video Workshop with Anne Crilly and Trisha Ziff delivering critical perspectives which ran counter to the censored narratives then broadcast by British and Irish television. The signal works of this period were Mother Ireland (1988), Anne Crilly’s controversial documentary about feminism and Irish republicanism and Harkin’s own Hush-A-Bye Baby (1990), a feature drama about teenage pregnancy following the 1983 abortion referendum in Ireland.   Harkin established Besom Productions in 1992 making educational films for Channel Four but her reputation as an astute, local documentarian of injustices was soon forged through a series of highly-regarded television documentaries. Her cinema films, the surf documentary Waveriders by Joel Conroy (which she produced) and Stolen, about the plight of unmarried mothers in Ireland in the 20th century, provided thoroughly researched, compelling accounts of their subjects.  Margo Harkin is a member of Aosdána. Her work has won countless awards and is widely taught to third level film and media students.  All titles in this collection were digitised and preserved by the IFI Irish Film Archive thanks to a grant from Coimisiún na Meán’s Archiving Funding Scheme, which aims to preserve content recorded for broadcast on radio or television.

9 films

The After 16 Collection

Funded by Bord Scannán na hÉireann/the Irish Film Board, After ’16 is a creative response by Irish filmmakers to the events of Easter 1916. This collection of nine short films is a mixture of live-action, animation and documentary, and tells stories from the eve of the Easter Rising, all the way to the Troubles in 1970s Northern Ireland and beyond. Following a premiere at the Audi Dublin International Film Festival in 2016, the films went on to screen as a collection at Galway and Cork Film Festivals, as well as at Irish film festivals around the world, including Boston and Toronto. The films also found audiences outside the cinema, with screenings at the National Museum of Ireland at Collins Barracks, and in Dublin City Libraries. The Party and A Terrible Hullabaloo were included in the official selection for Encounters Short Film and Animation Festival, Bristol. In 2017, The Party had the distinction of being nominated for a BAFTA in the Short Film category. It is anticipated that the unique addition of downloadable notes for schools will expand the potential for greater appreciation by young people of our history and storytelling heritage. Note to Teachers: In collaboration with IFI Education, each of the After’16 short films includes a complimentary Classroom Worksheet. These are downloadable documents that can be used as a guide for teachers and students. They include themes as well as suggested activities to accompany each short film. The nine short films in this collection have not been classified so we have added an age recommended to each of the films. While most of the films are suitable for a 12+ audience, the content and lesson ideas are geared towards Transition Year +, with the exception of A Terrible Hullabaloo. As with all content on the IFI Player, we recommend that you view the material in advance of showing them in class.

21 films

Ballymun Community Films

Established in 1967 to ease overcrowding in Dublin’s city centre, Ballymun became Ireland’s first and largest high-rise housing development. While often defined by its social challenges in media coverage, Ballymun is also a place of extraordinary community spirit, creativity, and resilience. Ballymun Community Films is a remarkable 20 film collection capturing more than 40 years of life in one of Ireland’s most storied communities. It is a snapshot of the larger Ballymun Communications Archive, and additionally features a selection of Ballymun related and inspired films including Bread & Circus’s acclaimed 2017 documentary The 4th Act, directed by Turlough Kelly and produced by Andrew Keogh, which turns a critical eye on the regeneration process. This curated collection follows a collaborative five-year project between the IFI Irish Film Archive, in partnership with Ballymun Communications, and funded by Coimisiún na Meán, from which the Ballymun Communications Archive was compiled. Primarily made by local residents through long-standing training initiative and social enterprise Ballymun Communications, more than 1,000 hours of their community-made footage has been digitised and catalogued and is now protected for future generations in the IFI Irish Film Archive’s state-of-the-art digital preservation library. A showcase of 550 films from the Ballymun Communications Archive has been created by the IFI Irish Film Archive, and will be available for community access through Ballymun Communications. The Ballymun Community Films collection is a personal insight into the life of Ballymun: its vibrant arts and music scene, community-led education and employment initiatives, the slow decline of its town centre, and the sweeping regeneration project that dramatically reshaped the area. The digitisation and preservation of the Ballymun Communications Archive was made possible with the support of Coimisiún na Meán, underscoring a shared commitment to champion community storytelling and protect Ireland’s diverse moving image heritage. The project is a powerful reflection of the IFI’s core mission: to preserve the film heritage of Ireland and to ensure that future generations can engage with, learn from, and be inspired by the lived experiences of communities like Ballymun.

1 film

The Benjamin Gault Collection

Benjamin True Gault (1858-1942) was an American conservationist and ornithologist. Gault visited counties Cork and Kerry to observe, record, and film wildlife in the mid-1920s. During this period in Ireland, he captured striking footage of seabirds, wildlife, as well as daily life on the Blasket Islands, Dunquin, and wider Munster area including school runs, church and local markets, dancing, and sewing crops to name just a few. The collection is just over 26 minutes in length. After his death in 1942, Gault’s collection of bird specimens, field notes and films remained at the home of the Wagoner family, friends with whom he lived during the latter portion of his life. In 1964, a daughter of the family donated the entire collection to the Morton Arboretum and the Field Museum. The collection was later moved to the vaults of the Chicago Academy of Sciences for preservation. Micheál Ó Mainnín, a Ballyferriter native whose interest in the films was sparked by tales his grandfather had told of Gault’s visit, tracked them down to the Academy and, in 2019, alerted the IFI to their existence. Subsequently, the IFI Irish Film Archive, the San Francisco Silent Film Festival and the Chicago Academy of Sciences partnered to restore the twenty-three rolls of nitrate camera negatives. The film contained no titles, so descriptive titles have been created to indicate shooting locations, and actions taking place in the footage. The film was scanned at 6K resolution and digitally restored. Following digital restoration, a new safety 35mm negative and 35mm print were created. These preservation elements are held in the San Francisco Silent Film Festival Collection at the Library of Congress. A live screening of this footage was also presented at the Blasket Centre, Dunquin, County Kerry in 2023 to local attendees. To celebrate UNESCO World Day for Audiovisual Heritage 2024, we are delighted to release The Benjamin Gault Collection on the IFI Archive Player. The beautifully restored footage is available to watch from anywhere in the world and includes musical accompaniment by Dingle natives Aoife Granville (fiddle, flute) and Deirdre Granville (harp).

11 films

The Bord Fáilte Collection

Some of the largest collections held by the IFI Irish Film Archive come from Government departments and State and semi state bodies. Apart from their educational and entertainment value in a country that did not have its own television station until 1961, these state-sponsored produced films are noteworthy not only for their high production values and interesting content, but also for the calibre of those involved in their creation. Luminaries of the Irish acting world would often make a appearances, and at a time when the Irish film industry was underdeveloped and opportunities for technical training were limited, important figures such as Louis Marcus, Bob Monks, Colm Ó Laoghaire, George Fleischmann, Gerard Healy and Rex Roberts all found gainful employment in their production. Films made for Bord Fáilte provide not only a beautiful record of Ireland’s landscape and topography throughout the 20th century, but also serve to illustrate the development of the Irish tourist industry and the image that ‘brand’ Ireland was endeavouring to project, as it marketed itself as an international tourist destination.

37 films

Children on Film

This substantial new collection of films provides a vibrant overview of childhood in Ireland from the 1930s to more recent times. While some of the films have been made by children themselves, most are made about them by adults keen to capture their uncorrupted perspectives as they navigate the world around them. The collection rewards close study as it offers insights into changing expectations of children; their role in family life and their experiences in Irish society over 80 years. Enjoy films made for educational purposes; animations designed to entertain; short dramas showing real and imagined crises in children’s lives; documentaries capturing reality of young lives and advertisements selling fun stuff.

20 films

Christmas Crackers

Christmas is a time for nostalgia and reminiscence about years gone by. This delightfully varied collection will trigger all sorts of memories of Christmases past. Once again this collection of films from the IFI Irish Film Archive is a gift from us to all those who are home and those who are thinking of home. We hope it makes you feel a little closer to the people and places you yearn for. With thanks to the filmmakers who so generously agreed to be part of the collection. This programme is kindly supported by Culture Ireland.

2 films

The Colin Hill Collection

Colin Hill was born in Geneva of Irish parents, both of whom came from Cork. He grew up in the US but he spent his childhood summers with his maternal grandparents, well-to-do members of the Protestant Anglo-Irish gentry, at their home Annes Grove, Castletownroche (which would serve as location for Duhallow Home). While working as a Trainee Assistant Film Editor in the BBC, Colin honed his filmmaking craft through the production of two short films Dark Moon Hollow (1971) and Duhallow Home (1973). Both were made on a shoestring (under 1000 pounds) and, Colin notes, “they both show evidence of budgetary constraints: main character’s think voice, natural lighting, non-synchronous clockwork Bolex camerawork, all wild sound post-synchronized audio, script, camera, audio, editing by myself and, except for the narrators, singer and musicians, non-professional, ordinary people as the actors”. The young woman appearing in both films is Margaret “Maggie” Hill (née Purdon Coote) to whom Colin was happily wed for 56 years and the mother of their 4 children. Colin continued his career as film editor in the BBC and later at ABC News where he received EMMY achievement awards and a Cine Golden Eagle for his work on long-form documentaries for ABC.

5 films

The Department of Foreign Affairs Collection

The Department of Foreign Affairs, also known as the Department of External Affairs, was one of the many state bodies in Ireland to commission films to be produced on its behalf. Often partnering with the National Film Institute (now the IFI) they generally made films on subjects considered to be culturally worthy and educationally important. The Cultural Relations Committee, a group within the department responsible for promoting Irish arts and culture abroad, commissioned much of the output, and films such as A Nation Once Again (1946) W.B. Yeats: A Tribute (1950) and Liam O’Leary’s Portrait of Dublin (1952) are representative of the type of historical and informative topics generally featured. A noteworthy example of more controversial and political subject matter is Fintona – A Study of Housing Discrimination which looks at anti-Catholic housing discrimination in Northern Ireland. This film is unusual as the government allegedly made it with the use of a hidden camera, utilising the medium of film as a political tool to address the Northern question. This investigative documentary was in stark contrast to the department’s other non-threatening output, however, after the controversy that followed Fintona’s release in 1954, the Department of Foreign Affairs returned to focusing on less contentious subject matter.

5 films

The Desmond Egan Collection

Desmond Egan was a skilled amateur filmmaker with a keen eye for detail. A wine merchant by trade, he lived with his wife and 4 daughters in Glenageary, Co Dublin. His films were shot between 1937 and 1957. Egan had been involved in a professional capacity with architect Michael Scott (designer of Busáras) and cameraman George Fleischmann when they established the production company Hibernia Films in 1945. The company produced a series of government information films, including: Silent Order, Next Please and Voyage to Recovery. His professional experience no doubt influenced his own film-making activity. His films, unlike those of many other amateurs, are finely-crafted and edited works. He worked exclusively with colour film rendering his beautiful garden (his wife’s pride and joy), his home (designed by Michael Scott) and his daughters’ childhood with great warmth and vibrancy. His short documentaries, though silent, are invaluable records of the subjects they explore. Shot with great skill, they are all cleverly constructed and edited to include explanatory titles and inter-titles.

29 films

The Early Irish Free State Collection

The Easter Rising, the War of Independence and the Irish Civil War formed one of the most turbulent political periods in Ireland’s history. The impact of this struggle would define the social and political landscape of the emerging Irish Free State. The Early Irish Free State Collection leads on from our previous historical release The Irish Independence Collection and explores aspects of the nation. Film production in Ireland was of low political and economic priority during this period and the newsreels, documentaries and cinémagazines in this collection were filmed by the non-indigenous agency, British Pathé. Although this representation of Ireland through a foreign lens offers us a very specific view of the fledgling nation, it also documents aspects of Irish life that may otherwise not have been recorded. We see parts of the country struggling with potato blight, traditional craft-making and the isolated way of life of the western islanders, in stark contrast to modern developments such as the development of hydro-power, manufacturing fairs, the promotion of brand Ireland and finally the beginning of the Irish Border, a concern which would return in this century. These Irish newsreel stories were not held in an Irish archive until very recently and many had not been made available to the public since their distribution nearly 100 years ago. With the support of the Department of Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht, the Irish Film Institute was able to work with the original custodians of these collections (the British Film Institute and British Pathé) in order to repatriate, safeguard and share these vital visual records. By digitising the fragile, original nitrate film prints to high definition format, historians, academics and the public can now witness details not evident in the standard definition versions of the material, previously available. The Early Irish Free State Collection enlists the expertise of Brenda Malone, of the National Museum of Ireland (NMI), to examine and add context to depicted events, people and locations, many of which were originally missed by non-Irish cataloguers. Additionally, Brenda links artefacts held at NMI, that carve out a broader, contextual historical map of politics, folklife, religion and tourism in the Irish Free State. Through this multiplicity of perspectives we are able to see a nation forging its identity whilst grappling with the legacy of its tumultuous history.

166 films

IFI Education

The IFI Player has a wealth of moving image content that you can access at home in lots of different ways to help and support your learning, using digital media literacy. DML is an element of most school subjects across primary and secondary school; as well as being able to understand traditional written texts, you have the chance to read and learn with digital texts too. Reading digital texts, you rely on visual language and also, sound, edits, mise en scène and so on. All of these elements help you to understand how the particular text communicates meaning. How to use the IFI player to enhance your learning: Follow the subject tabs below or browse the collections from the main page, using topic tags such as social history, Dublin, 1916, tourism and so on. See the tips on our latest Education ezine. If you’d like any more ideas for using the player for your home study, or teaching ideas for your students, please get in touch.

14 films

The Father Delany Collection

Father Jack Delany was born in 1906 and died in 1980. He was ordained in 1930 at the age of 24 and served as a parish priest in Dublin in the 1930s and 1940s. In the 1930s Fr Delany was assigned to the north inner city parish which included Gloucester Street (now Seán MacDermott Street), Rutland Street and Gardiner Street. It was an impoverished neighbourhood of densely populated tenements. Father Delany grew up in a middle-class family and had great admiration for residents of the inner-city, particularly admiring their sense of community and resilience in the face of hardship. His parishioners are the subject of many of his films and his films of tenement life provide us with a fascinating glimpse of life in 1930s inner city Dublin. These scenes include children playing in rubble, stall holders, clothes drying on the balconies of flats and residents of the Sisters of Our Lady of Charity Convent (which housed a Magdalene Laundry). Father Delany’s niece Irene Devitt, along with her late husband John Devitt, deposited Fr Delaney’s film collection with the IFI Irish Film Archive in the 1990s.

37 films

F-Rated: Short Films by Irish Women

F-Rated: Short Films by Irish Women presents a varied series of stories told through the prism of the female gaze. The films are drawn from collections preserved in the IFI Irish Film Archive. The F-rating, which tags films written or directed by women, is used by exhibitors such as the IFI to promote films that fairly represent women on screen and behind the camera. This collection brings together 36 films made by Irish women over four decades. Many of the films are written by women; all are directed by women. It includes drama and documentary; live action and animation; films made with generous support and films made on a shoestring; films in Irish and films in English (one in Polish, one in Ukranian); independent films that were seen by few, and films that garnered global attention, Academy Awards and BAFTAs. The short form has traditionally proved more accessible for women filmmakers, and so, despite their underrepresentation in the catalogue of mainstream feature film, women’s stories have been told over the past 40 years. Many of the stories presented here subvert mainstream male-dominated narratives and present alternative perspectives that are fresh and reflective of the lived experience of women in Irish society. We invite you to explore this powerful collection, which shows the evolution of Irish filmmaking and indeed of Irish society itself, as interpreted by Irish women filmmakers over the past four decades. Programme notes for the F rated collection have been prepared with the assistance of UCD interns Rachel Cahill and Rebekah Ryan.

21 films

Gearrscannáin ón gCartlann

While feature films in Irish are currently enjoying huge international success, shorter films in the Irish language have been a staple of big and small Irish screens for generations. A vast, multi-faceted body of work exists and is preserved in the IFI Irish Film Archive. It includes dramatised public information films produced simultaneously in Irish and English by the National Film Institute in the ‘40s and ‘50s; a selection from over 250 issues of the Amharc Éireann newsreel produced by Gael Linn for cinema exhibition between 1957 and ’63; cinema shorts, some Oscar-nominated, made by Louis Marcus in the 1970s; longer form works made by Loopline Films, Louis Lentin and Margo Harkin for television and the scores of award-winning live-action and animated films made in more recent times. Gearrscannnáin draws together a wealth of short film material, sound-tracked as Gaeilge and demonstrating the loveliness and liveliness of the language across a range of film forms.

85 films

The Guinness Adverts Project

The Guinness Archive has partnered with the IFI Irish Film Archive to catalogue, digitise and preserve a collection of 16mm and 35mm advertisements made in the 1950s, ’60s, ‘70s, ‘80s and '90s, making it the largest publicly available collection of brand advertising in Ireland and the UK. Inspired by the success of the Irish Adverts Project in 2016, the project is supported by a grant from Coimisiún na Meán’s Archiving Funding Scheme. Created to advertise Guinness to Irish and UK television audiences, the collection of adverts features a wealth of talent both behind and in front of the camera, with directors including Alan Parker, Tony and Ridley Scott; music from artists Elkie Brooks, Clannad and the Chieftains; and a host of well-known faces such as Pete Postlethwaite, Bill Nighy, Robert Lindsay and Jon Pertwee. In addition to their ability to evoke nostalgia, this collection of commercials captures moments in cultural and social history spanning a 50-year period that offers a fascinating insight into changing representations of Irishness both at home and overseas, evolving gender roles and the ever–changing role of the pub in Irish society. This collection is kindly supported by The Arts Council, Guinness, Coimisiún na Meán and Axonista. Get the facts, Be drink aware and visit drinkaware.ie Guinness adverts have changed over the years and they are continually evolving to take into account changing society and advertising rules. These adverts may contain historical product claims that are not now endorsed by Diageo. In making these adverts available it is not our intention to promote benefits of drinking but to show historical Guinness advertising in its original context.

3 films

The Guinness Film Society Film Group Collection

The Guinness Film Society Film Group was an amateur filmmaking group set up in February 1968, when Mike Lawlor, then Chairman of the Society, proposed its establishment to the Committee. The Guinness Film Society, in existence since the early 1950s, was one of a number of film societies that brought independent and auteur cinema to Irish audiences. At its next public screening, Lawlor addressed the audience and invited anyone interested in making films to join the Group. Core members of the Guinness Film Society Film Group included Guinness colleagues John Gleeson (editing and camera), Tony Corcoran (research and sound) and Mike Lawlor (producer), aswell as Ries Hoek (director of photography), a Dutch commercial artist with an interest in filmmaking and a 16mm Bolex camera. They completed four films in four years: Liffey Faces (1969), a charming film following the journey of a toy yacht down the length of the Liffey to Dublin Bay; Ciall Cheannaigh (1969), a fly-on-the-wall documentary about the first suburban shopping centre in Ireland; The Birth of the Emerald Star Line (1970), a promotional film about a new Guinness subsidiary offering cabin cruisers for hire on the River Shannon, and Emerald Shannon (1971), which follows a family on their cruise along the river. In 2022, the IFI Irish Film Archive meticulously restored three of the group’s four films. This restoration programme has been supported by the Heritage Council and Dublin Port Company.

7 films

The IFI Filmmaker Playlist - Lenny Abrahamson

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 favourite material preserved in the IFI Irish Film Archive from the IFI 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.

10 films

The IFI Filmmaker Playlist - Trish McAdam

Our second IFI Filmmaker Playlist is curated by filmmaker and visual artist Trish McAdam. Since the production of her early shorts in the 1980s, Trish has created a vibrant and varied body of work, embracing a range of forms and subjects and retaining a singular, independent voice. Snakes and Ladders (1997), her debut feature, was one of the first Irish films directed by a woman about contemporary women’s lives, and she continued to position women squarely on screen with her ground-breaking documentary series, Hoodwinked: Irish Women Since the 1920s. Her interest in other artists is evident in her documentary profiles of Leo O’Kelly, Donal O’Kelly and Liu Xiabo. She has recently explored new modes of storytelling in her formally exciting short films Strangers to Kindness (2015) and Confinement (2019). We’re delighted to welcome Trish to the Irish Film Institute to select her top picks from films preserved in the IFI Irish Film Archive and presented on the IFI Archive Player. Trish approached the IFI Archive Player looking to discover some hidden gems showing an alternative Irish character. Her choices can be broken down into three eras: early representations of Ireland on film (1910s – 1920s); changing culture in Ireland (1950s – 1970s); and contemporary Irish filmmaking (1980s – 2000s). The wide-ranging selection, in her own words ‘not so much a tip of an iceberg, as a scattering within the iceberg,’ is free to watch on the IFI Archive Player anywhere in the world.

4 films

The Horgan Brothers Collection

The Horgan Brothers’ films (1910- 1920) are some of the earliest moving images made in Ireland. Brothers Philip, James and Thomas Horgan began their careers in the late 19th century in Youghal, Co. Cork as shoemakers and photographers. They ran magic lantern shows in Youghal and in the surrounding villages and townlands. From 1903, following the success of their photographic studio and shows, James Horgan began to use a moving image camera that he had adapted from a projector to capture current events and their local community beginning with the Royal visit to Lismore castle in 1903. In 1917 the brothers opened the purpose-built 600-seat cinema The Horgan Picture Theatre in Youghal, where they screened The Youghal Gazette – their local topical newsreel featuring events of local interest and contemporary international feature films. This practice was not uncommon among early cinema owners. Many owners would also film events (such as fairs, processions etc) which were well-attended by locals. Screening this guaranteed a sold out show as the locals were keen to see themselves on the big screen. The Horgans experimented with photography and models and this collection includes the earliest surviving Irish animation which dates from about 1910. It features the Youghal Town Hall Clock standing on its head and pirouetting. This collection was donated to the IFI Irish Film Archive by Jim Horgan, who is the grandson of James Horgan. Soon after acquisition, the nitrate rolls were transferred to modern safety stock. Although most of the reels had suffered the ravages of time, enough had survived to provide an invaluable moving image record of what appeared on screen a century ago in a rural Irish cinema.

199 films

The Irish Adverts Project

The IFI Irish Film Archive, supported by a grant from the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland’s Archiving Funding Scheme, has catalogued, digitised, restored and preserved a large collection of 35mm film television advertisements made in the 1960, ‘70s and ‘80s. These commercials were made for broadcast on Irish television by a number of prolific Irish advertising agencies including Wilson Hartnell, Birchall, Hunter and Arks, for a variety of corporations (both Irish and international). The collection of nearly 8000 rolls of film had been held in damp warehouses for decades and, as a result of poor storage conditions, it suffered physical deterioration and contracted a mould infestation before it was transferred to the IFI Irish Film Archive in the mid-1990s. The Archive team has salvaged this material, through a combination of painstaking processes including frame by frame assessment, extensive physical and chemical conservation and finally scanning and digital restoration. The collection has also been catalogued and preserved according to international best practice, thus safeguarding it for the future and making it widely accessible for the first time. This project has resulted in the creation of a substantial Irish TV advertising archive that is a rich treasure trove of national memory and cultural artefacts. These films may be only seconds long but together they provide a unique window into Irish society and consumer habits over a 3 decade period. They tell us much about the community they were made for, as well as the era they were made in; reflecting the social mores, standards, dress sense, attitudes to gender and race of the Ireland for which they were created. They are fascinating on many levels and can be enjoyed from a nostalgic, historical, social or cultural perspective.

158 films

The Irish Independence Collection

5 films

Joyce on Film

The IFI presents a selection of short films preserved in the IFI Irish Film Archive in celebration of James Joyce – the man and his literature. Joyce, himself a regular and passionate cinema goer, managed the Volta, one of Ireland’s first dedicated cinemas, for a short time when it opened its doors in December 1909. His work has inspired feature-length films by directors such as Joseph Strick, Mary Ellen Bute, John Huston and Sean Walsh. Here we look at short films in a programme that includes live-action, animation, documentary and newsreel, and attests to the various creative ways in which filmmakers respond to Joyce’s literary genius.

57 films

The Loopline Collection Volume 1

Loopline is an independent production company established in 1992 by award-winning filmmaker Sé Merry Doyle. Since its foundation, Loopline has been at the heart of Irish independent broadcasting creating a wealth of important and diverse material on topics such as folklife, ethnology, architecture, art, literature and inner city life. The subjects explored by Loopline were chosen by Merry Doyle for their cultural and social importance. This first tranche of the Loopline Collection covers key areas of Irish history and arts, and contains a unique wealth of stunning images revealing everyday Irish society in urban settings. The focus of the filmmaker is on national identity in a changing world and Sé Merry Doyle set up Loopline Film with the specific intention of making creative documentaries that would endure and stand the test of time. The collection contains a large quantity of urban material that chronicles the changing landscape of Dublin, its buildings and its citizen’s ways of life. The films include such historically resonant images as the clearance of slums, the closure of traditional markets, and tragic accounts of young teenagers dying from the heroin epidemic of the early 90’s. Portraits of artists, architects, writers and poets are also a cornerstone of the collection with riveting interviews with the very best artistic talent in the country. Patrick Kavanagh, John Montague, Hugh Leonard, James Gandon, Jennifer Johnston, Doris Lessing, John Henry Foley, Eavan Boland, Brendan Kennelly and Joseph O’Connor are but a fraction of those featured. We hope you enjoy the first volume of material released, and we look forward to sharing more Loopline material with you in the near future.

18 films

The Loopline Collection Volume 2

In 2019, The Irish Film Institute launched The Loopline Collection Volume 1 featuring an extensive list of feature-length documentaries, TV series and previously unseen outtakes from Loopline Films. Founded in 1992 by award-winning filmmaker Sé Merry Doyle, this pioneering company has created a wealth of important and diverse material on topics such as folklife, the arts, literature, politics and inner-city life. We are delighted to now unveil the next tranche from the Loopline archive. The Loopline Collection Volume 2 features the highly acclaimed four-part documentary series Hidden Treasures which captured the Irish imagination when first broadcast on RTÉ in the late 1990s. The series, directed by Anne O’Leary, offers a fascinating and intimate view of traditional Irish life and culture. Rare glimpses of declining or long-forgotten traditions are vitally captured through an amalgamation of restored 16mm field recordings, made by the National Museum of Ireland from the  1950s – ‘70s and contemporary material and interviews shot by Loopline and narrated by poet and writer Theo Dorgan. The second six-part TV series included in this collection, Mná an IRA, by Martina Durac and screened on TG4, profiles six women engaged in active service in the IRA. The women (Martina Anderson, Pamela Kane, Rose Dugdale, Roseleen McCorley, Rosaleen Walsh and Josephine Hayden) offer personal reflections on the impact of their actions on the conflict in Northern Ireland and politics in the Republic. Lastly, Documentary Where Art Thou? is a collection of interviews with seminal Irish and international documentary filmmakers – all contributors to a course on documentary practice designed by Sé Merry Doyle and Martina Durac and conducted under the auspices of Screen Training Ireland and Film Base.  A documentary which Sé planned to build from these interviews was never completed. The IFI now offers an exclusive glimpse into these interviews with invaluable reflections on documentary form by a range of leading practitioners including D.A. Pennebaker, Jon Bang Carlsen, Molly Dineen and Kim Longinotto and others.

6 films

The Louis Lentin Collection

Filmmaker Louis Lentin produced drama and documentary works for RTÉ for close to thirty years before embarking on an independent career in which he made a series of pioneering works uncovering injustices in Ireland’s past which would prove instrumental in effecting significant changes in Irish society. In recognition of his contribution to the arts in Ireland over 50 years he was honoured with membership of Aosdána in 2006. Born in Limerick in 1933, he studied at Trinity College Dublin, where he chaired the Trinity Players. Among his theatre productions were the Irish premieres of Beckett’s Krapp’s Last Tape and Endgame; his Voice of Shem, adapted from Joyce’s Finnegans Wake, was staged in Dublin and London. He was a founder in 1959 of Dublin’s Art Theatre Productions. Lentin joined RTÉ in 1961, and in 1966 produced and directed Insurrection, a pioneering eight-part reconstruction of events of the Easter Rising which was broadcast nightly during the centenary week of The Rising. As RTE’s Head of Drama he oversaw the Thursday Playdate and the Sunday Series that showcased plays by many Irish playwrights. He left RTÉ in 1989 and formed an independent production company Crescendo Concepts. As an independent producer Louis tackled a range of challenging subjects. He is particularly remembered for his 1996 documentary for RTÉ Dear Daughter, about the institutional abuse of children in the Goldenbridge Sisters of Mercy orphanage. He further explored this subject in his 1999 series for TV3 Stolen Lives (1999). These ground-breaking programmes (along with others such as Mary Raftery’s States of Fear (RTÉ 1999)),  caused a national outcry that eventually led to the establishment of the Murphy and Ryan reports, the Redress Board and an apology from the Taoiseach Bertie Ahern to survivors of institutional abuse. His last documentary, Grandpa, Speak to me in Russian (2007) tells the story of his paternal grandfather Kalman Lentin who migrated to Ireland from Lithuania in the 1890s as an unaccompanied minor. Louis Lentin won many national and international awards for his work including the Creative Excellence Award at the US International Film and Television Festival and a Banff nomination for Dear Daughter. He passed away in July 2014.

7 films

The Monsignor Reid Collection

Father William Reid (later Monsignor Reid) acquired his first ‘movie’ camera in the mid-1930s. He enjoyed capturing fleeting moments and filmed a wide variety of subjects, mainly in colour, from the 1930s to the 1970s. In addition to footage of family, friends and beautiful Irish scenery, he captured holiday-makers in France, Spain, England and Italy. Monsignor Reid also filmed extensively in the United States, where he lived for much of his life. Notable American films in his collection show scenes of his adopted home in Oklahoma, Niagara Falls, The Grand Canyon, and a St. Patrick’s Day Parade in New York, in which Bobby Kennedy can be seen walking in the procession. He was born William Henry Reid in Loughglynn, Co. Roscommon in 1908. He was educated locally at St Nathy’s College, Ballaghaderreen before moving to Louvain, Belgium, to study for the priesthood. In 1936, the newly-ordained Father Reid set sail for Oklahoma, the diocese in the USA to which he had been assigned. He became one of the youngest priests ever to be made a Monsignor. Throughout his life, Monsignor Reid maintained close family ties with Ireland. He spent four weeks every summer relaxing in the homestead (usually accompanied by his younger brother, Reverend Martin Reid) and filming his family and friends – holidays, weddings, picnics, anniversaries in Sligo, Roscommon and elsewhere around the country. He fulfilled his dream to retire in his native parish of Loughglynn and passed away in September 1979. Monsignor Reid’s collection of 16mm films was deposited with the IFI Irish Film Archive by a relative Ann O’Brien (née Reid).

8 films

The O'Kalem Collection

The O’Kalem Collection includes films directed by Sidney Olcott for: The Kalem Company (The Lad From Old Ireland, Rory O’More, The Colleen Bawn, His Mother and You Remember Ellen), for the Gene Gauntier Feature Players (For Ireland’s Sake, Come Back to Erin) ,and the Lubin Company (Bold Emmet Ireland’s Martyr). When New York’s Kalem Film Company came to Ireland in 1910 to make the short film The Lad from Old Ireland they made cinema history – the film was the first made by an American production company outside the US and also the first film ever made on two continents (and the Atlantic Ocean in between). Actor/director Sidney Olcott and actor/writer Gene Gauntier returned to Ireland several times between 1910 and 1915 to produce almost thirty Irish-themed films and earned themselves the nickname the O’Kalems in the process. The majority of their films were made in and around Killarney, Co. Kerry, making extensive use of the dramatic landscape and employing locals as extras. The O’Kalem films can be considered important not only for their claim to be the first fiction films made in Ireland and on two continents, but also because they tell us much about the Irish emigrant experience in America at the start of the 20th century. They are also fine examples of silent era filmmaking by a large American studio. For several decades the IFI Irish Film Archive worked to identify extant copies of the O’Kalem films held in international film archives, to centralize them and retrieve copies of them for the benefit of Irish audiences.

20 films

The Oscar® Collection

A great short film, like a great short story, conjures worlds with clarity and economy, bringing viewers on journeys which are brief but deeply engrossing. Since the 1950s, Irish filmmakers have mastered the short film form and secured international recognition with an impressive array of awards including many Academy Award® nominations and victories. Popularly known as the Oscars, the awards are the most famous and prestigious in the entertainment industry. This collection brings together a selection of these award-winning films – ghostly tales and pitch-black comedies, illuminating documentaries and exquisite animations – populated by an array of famous folks such as Seán O’Casey, Orson Welles, Fionnula Flanagan and Brendan Gleeson. The films, directed and written by Irish men and women, date from 1951 to 2018. The Oscar® Collection: A Selection of Irish Academy Award® Nominated Short Films is drawn from material preserved in the IFI Irish Film Archive. This programme is supported by the Government of Ireland through National Broadband Ireland and the Broadband Connection Points plan.

8 films

The Patrick Carey Collection

Patrick (better known as Paddy) Carey was born in London in 1916. His family moved to Dublin in 1923, where he studied painting at art school before returning to London. Carey began to work as a photographer and cameraman on nature programmes and documentaries both nationally and internationally, including documenting Edmund Hillary's Everest descent in 1953. He moved to Canada with his wife Vivien to avail of documentary production opportunities offered by the National Board of Canada. He was hired as a cinematographer on the Oscar-nominated and BAFTA-winning Journey into Spring (1957) and on the Oscar-nominated The Living Stone (1959). Carey would continue to work as a second unit camera operator throughout his life on films such as Stanley Kubrick’s Barry Lyndon (1975) and Black Beauty (1971) as well as second unit director on Fred Zinnemann’s A Man For All Seasons (1966). In the early 1960s Carey returned to Ireland and established Aengus Films with Vivien in 1964. He filmed and directed primarily short, pictorial, landscape films commissioned by the Department of External Affairs. His first film, Yeats Country (1965) achieved huge international recognition and was nominated for an Academy Award in 1966. This was followed by a series of lyrical and evocative films depicting the landscape, flora and fauna of Ireland. This collection delves into a range of subjects: Ireland’s pagan festival Samhain and megalith tombs in Mists of Time; the tale of Oisín, son of Celtic warrior Fionn MacCumhaill; a battle of Donegal mountains in Errigal; the relentless landscape of the west of Ireland in Waves; traditional, rural daily life in Reflections – Ireland; and a study of the Beara Peninsula in Beara. He returned to Canada in the early 1970s and continued to work in Britain, Ireland, Canada and the United States for the rest of his life. Paddy Carey’s observational and reflective work was filmed with the eye of a practised artist. Mesmerising close-ups of eddying rock pools, crashing waves, misty mountain peaks, and breath-taking sunsets are presented without geographic specificity. The films do not follow an educational form more common in recent nature documentary. Many are non-narrated with soundscape provided simply by remarkable audio recordings of nature, and, occasionally, scores by Irish musicians such as Brian Boydell and Paddy Moloney of The Chieftains. Locations are unpopulated and largely devoid of signs of human intervention in a romantic projection of Ireland which begs further appreciation and respect for the landscape.

14 films

The Radharc Collection

Founded in 1959, Radharc is considered one of Ireland’s most important independent documentary production companies. It initially comprised of a small group of Dublin priests lead by Father Peter Dunn and Fr Desmond Forristal. The team made over 400 documentaries which were screened on RTÉ, Ireland’s national broadcaster, between 1961 and 1996. Their insightful and challenging filmmaking garnered many critical accolades. The Radharc documentary series had a remarkably broad reach both geographically and thematically. It was shot in more than 60 countries around the world and looked at life from a range of religious, social and cultural perspectives. The team were not afraid to tackle difficult and often controversial topics and their standing as clergy allowed a level of access that lay filmmakers may not have been able to achieve. The Radharc output is significant, in both Irish and international terms, as a body of finely-crafted documentary work and an insightful record of Irish cultural, social and ideological engagement from the 1960s to 90s. The Radharc cameras shone a light onto a changing Ireland and recorded values, rural and urban traditions and indeed topography that no longer exist. Their international output was equally valuable as the team covered five continents in search of globally-significant subject matter. The Radharc Trust is responsible for The Radharc Collection and deposited it with the IFI in 1998. You can find out more at www.radharc.ie

167 films

Reels from Home

Reels from Home is a trip down memory lane with a specially curated collection of films selected from the Archives of the Irish Film Institute. Developed in collaboration with The London Irish Centre, Reels from Home presents a collection which includes material which dates as far back as the 1930s and includes both professional and amateur films documenting all aspects of Irish life including tourism, industry, sport, adverts and much more. The collection is made available through the IFI Player and suite of apps able to view anywhere in the world for free. Fancy watching adverts from your childhood or revisiting Ireland of old? Sit back in the comfort of your home and take this trip down memory lane with us.

23 films

The Roy Spence Collection

Roy Spence is an award-winning amateur filmmaker. For the past 50 years, Spence has been making and screening a series of remarkable and sometimes eccentric films in his cinema in Comber, Co. Down. The films span many genres from sci-fi, horror to folk-life documentaries shot between 1965 and 1986. Born in County Down in 1944, Roy Spence and his twin brother, Noel, became fans of the American science-fiction B-movies of the 1950s and of the work of directors such as Ed Wood, Jack Arnold, William Castle, and Roger Corman. The pair spent their youth at their local cinemas, in particular the Tudor Cinema in Bangor, and thus began their filmmaking journey with Roy as director and special effects creator, and Noel acting as distributor. As Northern Ireland descended into the Troubles of the 1970s, Spence built his house and private film studio, surrounded by his collection of antique Wurlitzer jukeboxes. His work was distributed mainly via small film clubs and regional and national film circuits, and it often appeared in Movie Maker – a popular magazine dedicated to small and medium gauge filmmaking. While Spence has never had his work theatrically released, the two brothers opened two cinemas, the Tudor and the Excelsior in Comber each becoming destinations for cinephiles across the world. Over the past decade there has been a renewed appreciation of his work and his films are considered to be of national significance. Through a joint initiative set by the British Film Institute, Northern Ireland Screen and the Irish Film Institute, a curated selection of 22 films from this collection is now available on the IFI Player. His entire filmography is now preserved at the IFI Irish Film Archive in Dublin.

20 films

The Terence McDonald Collection

Terence McDonald was a teacher, film historian, film collector and pioneering amateur filmmaker. Born in the city of Derry in 1926, the films he made during his lifetime are diverse in genre and subject. They range from short comedies and experimental films to expository documentaries covering topics such as travelling and cross-community theatre, mental health services, and films which promoted Derry as a developing city looking hopefully to the future.  His work includes personal projects and films commissioned or supported by a range of public bodies. Terence produced his films under the 'Fairview Films' banner, a title derived from the name of the family home in Rosemount Avenue, and somewhat intentionally misleading as he alone undertook all aspects of the work. With a deep understanding of all aspects of production – his credits include cinematographer, editor, sound recordist, producer and director – along with a wide knowledge of cinema, McDonald created visually sophisticated and culturally rich work. His films, shot primarily on 16mm film, feature a variety of references and influences, from Battleship Potemkin to Peyton Place, Alfred Hitchcock and Jacques Tati to Buster Keaton and Charlie Chaplin. They also received widespread recognition with awards from the British Film Institute, the Munich Film Festival and the National Film Institute (now IFI) Annual Film Competition. McDonald’s work has a notable sense of place. It not only represents the natural beauty of Northern Ireland but captures the various sides of his hometown of Derry through filmic portraits of the city, from the Georgian architecture and thrice-sieged city walls to the growing facilities and industries of the ‘60s. His two homages to the silent comedy era, The Fugitive and The Man from A.U.N.T., offered local audiences the opportunity to see their home on the big screen (perhaps for the first time) as the backdrop to slapstick capers making full use of the city’s walls and hilly streets. McDonald had several frequent collaborators. Fellow Derry native and former schoolteacher, future Nobel Peace Prize winner John Hume worked with McDonald on several projects promoting the region to potential donors and international tourists starting with A City Solitary in 1963 and the subsequent The City of Londonderry and Two Hours from London, which all depict an optimism about the prospects for the divided city. Fr Cyril Farrell, prior of the Benburb monastery, was involved in several of McDonald’s more spiritual pieces, writing Christ-like fable The Secret as well as the cross-community play The Story of Man captured in the documentary Benburb. Another writer who penned several scripts for McDonald was Gerry Wills, who wrote McDonald’s internationally successful Nebelung, as well as lending his voice to narrate documentaries Ballinascreen and The Portable Theatre. Northern Irish folk singer Gemma Hasson features in the scores of The Stones Will Speak, Long Hard Road, The Secret and Requiem for Sally. The Terence McDonald Collection is held and preserved by the IFI Irish Film Archive and these films are made available by the kind permission of Peter McDonald and Northern Ireland Screen.

6 films

Women in Focus

Women in Focus is a curated selection of films by five wildly independent amateur women filmmakers: Margaret Currivan; Agnes Heron; Flora Kerrigan; Beres Laidlaw; and Sister Maureen MacMahon. Women's creative work has been under-reported and under-recognised and can be challenging to catalogue due to a lack of recorded primary information. This is exacerbated when dealing with amateur or non-professional filmmaking, where the work of individual women filmmakers has been even more invisible. In 2021, the IFI Film Archive acknowledged a limitation in the IFI Film Archive research resources, and put a request out to academic partners to assist in developing new tools that would highlight the work of female filmmakers within the collection. This resulted in a collaborative research project that developed new approaches to cataloguing the creative contribution of women filmmakers in local, regional, and national archives. Funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council and the Irish Research Council, as part of the UK-Ireland Digital Humanities scheme, the project is a UK-Ireland collaboration between the University of East Anglia, Maynooth University, and the University of Sussex, with the IFI Irish Film Archive and East Anglian Film Archive as archive partners. The project has resulted in the creation of a cataloguing toolkit that helps archives with moving image collections to create clear, relevant, and easily accessible records about female filmmakers. The work presented here formed case studies for the toolkit and was digitised by the IFI Irish Film Archive.  A larger selection of films from the project will be made available on the IFI Archive Player in 2025.