A Dublin film director has called for more age and class diversity in the Irish film industry after scooping an award at the Galway Film Fleadh.
Indie film Verdigris won the award for Best Independent Film at the Galway festival after its premiere in July 14. Its film director and writer Patricia Kelly says she wishes she saw a better representation of the working class people and middle aged (and older) women that feature in her social realist drama.
She told Dublin Live: “It is hugely important, and not just for females as well, but older women. I turned 50 this year, it's very important that the older women are represented on screen and behind the camera. And it's hugely important that [there are] people from different classes as well, that it isn't always the middle class stories.
"It's important that the working class stories are told and are very much included in the conversation and that [working class people] are hired as directors and commissioned as writers, et cetera.”
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Verdigris takes place in north inner Dublin and follows middle class retiree Marian (Bad Sisters' Geraldine McAlinden) who takes a job as a census enumerator to get away from her abusive husband. The woman finds herself out of her depth as she has to visit social housing flat complexes and deal with people that she might have a lot of prejudice towards.
She then meets Jewel (Maya O’Shea from Normal People), a 17-year-old prostitute who lives by herself since her mother abandoned her five years prior. The film focuses on their unlikely friendship and the beauty of intergenerational and inter-class friendships.
Patricia said: “I was looking to tell a story that had lots of contrast... and to just look at conflict, to be able to look at ageism and social class and body issues and things like that by looking at the dynamics between these two women.”
The film also intends to raise awareness around coercive control. Patricia said she wanted "to show how abusive something can be even though there's never any bruises, he was never physically violent towards her during their marriage, and it's something that you can almost think, oh, sure, they're only small things.
“But it's the fact that there are a thousand small things and some of them are not so small.” The film director added: “There's a huge amount of issues [in the story] that are of particular relevance to a female audience, to human beings in general.”
Patricia says a lot of these topics come from her personal experience, her friends and family and her surroundings. Born in Coolock, Patricia lived in north inner Dublin later in life. In 2016, she was a census enumerator in north Dublin herself and found it “a hugely interesting experience” because of the variety of people and even some of the challenges she had during that time.
A few years ago, she was made redundant from her day job because of Covid. She said: “I thought, okay, if I'm ever going to get a micro budget feature film off the ground, it's now.”
The director said they got “really lucky” with the cast. She added: "Unquestionably, our two leads appropriately just steal the show. They are absolutely fantastic and I can't wait for everybody else to see them.
“Geraldine McAlinden who plays Marion, she's an incredibly hard worker and loves to improvise and loves to really get to the bottom of all of her characters.
“Maya O'Shea is a phenomenon as Jewel, she was nominated for Bingham Ray New Talent Award at Galway Film Fleadh, and I honestly think she's going to have a stellar career ahead of her. She's so talented, and she's a very intuitive actor.” The film also stars Penny Dreadful’s Michael James Ford and Killian Filan (Normal People).
Following the success of women-directed films like Barbie, Patricia says that Ireland also needs more female directors to tell women’s stories. She explained: “We have unquestionably been very much underrepresented to date. Thankfully, that is changing – there are more opportunities now.
"We do see many more female writers and directors in film and television.” The Galway Film Fleadh this year had 50 per cent of female directors, Patricia reveals. However, she adds that overall “there's a lot further to go”.
The film will play in a number of festivals in Ireland and internationally “for a good number of months”, after which the cast and crew are hoping for a cinematic release. For updates on the next festivals where Verdigris will be screened and news on potential theatrical cinema screenings, check out the film's official website or follow its Instagram page.
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