IFI Irish Film Archive
McVitie's: Teddy Bear
An advertisement for McVitie’s, in which a giant teddy bear tries to persuade a man to give him biscuits.
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Valley Ice Cream: Big Red
An advertisement for Valley Ice Cream, encouraging people to get their next ice cream pop from ‘the big red fridge’. Featuring all the favourites, including Choc Ice. Valley Ice Cream was based in Thurles, Co Tipperary, and closed in 1997.
The Coming of the Black Dawn - The Roy Spence Collection
A young man travels to his uncle’s lonely castle to give him a rare tractate. His uncle enlists his help in summoning up the ancient demon Cthulu, using secret rites of Black Magic which involve grave-robbing and murder. As the demon is summoned, the young man fears the worst and is forced to make a life changing decision. Shooting locations like Helen’s Tower and Tulynakill graveyard along with a shrill atmospheric soundtrack makes for a haunting experience. 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 to horror to folk-life documentaries shot between 1965 and 1986. His collection of over 40 films (13 documentaries/non-fiction and 29 fiction feature films) is held and preserved in the IFI Irish Film Archive.
The Drip
In 1985, two teenagers break into a cinema at night to watch the comical story of a woman waiting impatiently for her boyfriend to return home from the pub. The man’s actions cause utter chaos upon his return home to their apartment. Despite his inebriation he decides to climb, half-naked, out of bed and under the sink to fix a dripping tap. A curious cat surprises him with its attentions causing him to accidentally knock himself out. His long-suffering girlfriend calls an ambulance and, relieved to hear he’ll be alright in the morning, allows herself a little laugh as he is carried off still drunk, still naked, for a night in hospital. This idiosyncratic short film provided a vehicle for the fledgling directorial talents of Trish McAdam, and for a large and impressive cast of young actors including Jack Lynch, Pom Boyd, Mannix Flynn, and a young Aidan Gillen (as Aidan Murphy). This film is part of F-Rated: Short Films by Irish Women.
The Tomb of Frankenstein - The Roy Spence Collection
Shot on location in Comber and Clandeboye Estate in Bangor, this Roy Spence classic is an homage to the classic Frankenstein story. A strange old hermit employs witchcraft to give life to the dead Frankenstein’s monster and uses the creature to take vengeance on those who wronged him previously. But will the creature stay loyal to his creator or seek his own revenge? Roy Spence is an award-winning amateur filmmaker. For the past 50 years Roy 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 to horror to folk-life documentaries shot between 1965 and 1986. His collection of over 40 films (13 documentaries/non-fiction and 29 fiction feature films) is held and preserved in the IFI Irish Film Archive.
Kay
Kay is a short documentary that explores the artistic approach and paintings of Kay Lavelle, a sixth-year pupil at Sion Hill, one of Ireland's oldest all girls’ secondary schools in County Dublin. The film follows the student as she paints on Killiney strand with beachgoers and fishermen and at the school's art studio. Sister Maureen MacMahon, the filmmaker and Kay's teacher, created the work after her student returned from Germany dramatically affected by the adverse effects of the industrial revolution on the human psyche. Kay won the National Film Institute's Amateur Cine Competition in 1968. Sister Maureen MacMahon OP (b.1918) is an artist, writer, educator, filmmaker and Dominican nun. She entered the Dominican Order at Cabra, County Dublin, in 1936. MacMahon attended the National College of Art, Dublin, and received an ATC Certificate and Diploma in Art Education in 1970. She taught art in various local primary schools from 1947 to 1971. In the early 1970s, she worked as the Head of the Audio-Visual Department at Radharc, and later part-time lecturer at Trinity College, Dublin and St. Patrick’s Training College. MacMahon was part of the Black Raven Film Group, along with Owen Carton and Sean Brophy, which produced documentaries and educational films even winning the National Film Institute’s ‘Gevaert Perpetual Challenge’1st Place Trophy in 1967. In 2022, the Irish Film Institute held a public screening of MacMahon’s work, which she attended at the age of 104 years old.
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.