Men and Women - a short film

description

Men & Women is based on a short story of the same name from Claire Keegan’s collection Antarctica, a Los Angeles Times Best Book, and recipient of the prestigious Rooney Prize for Irish Literature among others. The Observer described it as “among the finest contemporary stories written recently in English.”

Men & Women follows a nine year old girl over the Christmas of 1979 as her loss of innocence is reflected in her realisation that neither Santa nor relations between her parents are what they seem.

In Claire Keegan’s writing, we identified a kindred spirit and sensibility that we wanted to bring to the screen.

So far, we have been very fortunate. The film script won the FilmOffaly 2012 award, which allowed us to bring a talented cast and crew together to brave the cold March weather and shoot the film in Offaly. The colours and textures of the landscape have seen it become a character in the film, and the support of local organisations and residents there has been invaluable.

Our talented volunteer cast and crew delivered a high quality aesthetic on our small budget, but our ambition to take on a period film set at a New Year’s Eve party means that we still need some more hard cash to complete the film.

This is where you come in! Your contributions will pay for all our post-production requirements including grading, sound and music and will also cover the costs of delivering the film to festivals internationally.

THE TEAM
Our cast includes the superb Michael Harding (Best Actor, Dublin Fringe Festival) and Catriona Ní Mhurchu (Best Supporting Actress nominee at Irish Theatre awards 2012) as parents Dan and Moll.

The short film was adapted by Paul O’Reilly, an award-winning writer who has been shortlisted for the William Trevor Prize and published in the Irish Times.

Director Ruth Meehan's previous short films have won 15 international awards. Ruth is an experienced TV director who is currently developing her first feature film for the cinema screen. She has also just written a feature film script for the Oscar-winning producer of The King's Speech.

Tamsin Lyons was a producer at Oscar-winning Breakthru Films for 6 years before establishing her own company Ink and Light in 2011. Her films have premiered at prestigious film festivals including Sundance, Toronto and London, and have been distributed worldwide.

The film is the first Irish film to be shot on the brand new high definition Sony F5 camera, with crew including IFTA-winning cinematographer Suzie Lavelle (The Other Side of Sleep, One Hundred Mornings), Nikki Conor (Cirque du Soleil, Riverdance) and too many other generous people to mention.