IFI Irish Film Archive
Bricklayer
Duration31s
In this innovative animation, a bricklayer enjoys a glass of Guinness after building an entire wall single-handedly.
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Island
The Irish-speaking customers of an isolated pub on a remote western island wait patiently for a delivery of Guinness, until finally the keg-filled currach is spotted. This well-known advert won a Clio award in New York for Arks Advertising in 1978, a Silver Cannes Lion and further awards from the Advertising Awards Festival, ICAD and Rank Screen Awards. Subtitles kindly provided by Báirbre Dolan and Saidhbh Ní Dhúlaing.
Late Afternoon
In this delicately rendered animation, Emily, an elderly woman with dementia, vividly relives her memories. Sitting comfortably in her armchair Emily (voiced by Fionnula Flanagan) takes a cup of tea and a biscuit when a simple mishap triggers a pleasant journey into the past. She swims through the memories of being a child on a beach, a young woman in a lover’s embrace and a young mother concerned for her little girl. Inspired by writer/director Louise Bagnall’s two grandmothers, this is a poignant celebration of ordinary lives. Late Afternoon is part of The Oscar® Collection: A Selection of Irish Academy Award® Nominated Short Films. It was nominated for an Academy Award® for Best Animated Short Film in 2019. A complementary behind-the-scenes video of Late Afternoon is also available as part of F-Rated: Short Films by Irish Women.
If These Walls Could Talk
IFTA-winning director Anna Rodgers highlights the plight of those who suffered and died in Dublin’s old psychiatric institutions. Opening with a quotation from Sebastian Barry’s novel The Secret Scripture, in which the main character is a resident in a Roscommon mental institution, the film takes us on a haunting tour of a vast and desolate building, once an Irish asylum. The voices of former residents describe their experience recounting their loneliness and suffering, and the harsh practice of electroconvulsive therapy (ECT). Their recollections reveal how people were committed and shed light on the social, economic and political factors that lead to their admission. The decision to feature voices and not faces allows the residents to maintain their anonymity. This film won the IFI’s Best Short at the Stranger Than Fiction Awards (now IFI Documentary Festival) and Best Documentary at the Kerry Film Festival in 2010. This film is part of F-Rated: Short Films by Irish Women.
The Polish Language
The Polish Language is a film-poem which brings an original poem by Alice Lyons to life through the medium of film. The imagery in this poem is activated in imaginative ways through various styles of animation, employing hand-drawn, stop-motion, and time lapse techniques. The typography - the style, arrangement and appearance of the letters and words of the poem - is a central element in this film. The images, animations and graphics flow freely into each other mirroring the ebb and flow of the poem’s lines and verses. This striking imagery is combined with an array of sounds such as the whispering of Polish poetry, the sound of keys tapping on a keyboard and the repetitive, distinctive noise of flicking paper. When blended seamlessly together with a musical arrangement by Justin Spooner, these sounds and images reveal the complementary possibilities of poetry and film. This film is part of F-Rated: Short Films by Irish Women.
The Border
Brenda Malone, Curator of Military History at The National Museum of Ireland, discusses the creation of checks and controls of the Irish Border and the affect it had on the lives of people in the region. She references early footage of border controls, a speech made by Lord Mayor Alfie Byrne and how this is an ongoing issue in Ireland in 2019. This film is part of The Irish Independence Film Collection – The Early Irish Free State that explores facets of Irish society after the War of Independence and up to the birth of the Irish Republic.
Mr. Alfred Byrne Lord Mayor of Dublin
In this sound newsreel the Lord Major of Dublin, Alfred (Alfie) Byrne, discusses Anglo-Irish relations and the prospect of a United Ireland in this speech from 1936. Seated comfortably in an armchair in a garden and wearing his mayoral chain of office, Mayor Alfie Byrne assures Pathé Gazette viewers that there is no serious animosity between the North and South of Ireland and recommends removal of the border (which he refers to as a ‘festering sore’). He criticises the abusive political language of both unionists and republicans as, according to him, it ‘will not bring prosperity’, and finishes his speech by expressing his dream of a border-free Ireland in the near future. Alfred Byrne was a working politician who served ten times as Lord Mayor of Dublin. This film is part of The Irish Independence Film Collection – The Early Irish Free State that explores facets of Irish society after the War of Independence and up to the birth of the Irish Republic.