Emerging Young Artists

"I had been thinking of all the young artists, whose beautiful wings, now fully grown, had been cruelly clipped by the Covid-19 restrictions. No summer jobs, no meeting up with their friends, no outlet for their creativity. To help protect the old and vulnerable, they were asked to stay indoors, we thank them for this. Collaboration in the arts is no new thing, people with different talents and skills working together to create something that requires more than one person or one art form. But usually, they get to meet, to chat and walk through the process together. They would get the opportunity to get a concept up on its feet, play around with different options and see what works best. For now, these avenues were closed, and the talent was isolated in their childhood bedrooms where our migrating birds had to wait out the storm.

With all this in mind I talked to Sarah Searson, and was very grateful that The Dock would support and promote this project. I approached writers Vinny McBrien, Aughavas, Jack Colum, Drumsna and Alice Kelly, Leitrim Village and gave them two weeks to write a short script for film. Covid restrictions meant that scripts should account for social distancing, small cast, and other such boring limitations.

These writers put the heads down and came back with great work. After reading them I decided who to cast, and they had other contacts who could help with filming. The ball was rolling. I was aware of two film makers from North Leitrim who were producing interesting stuff and tracked them down, one of my actors was aware of a film maker in Fenagh and I grabbed him too. I wanted to include a semi-improvised film too and knew just the pair of actors to approach for my film New Normal. Thanks to my talented husband Mick Blake who owed me a few favours and helped hugely in many aspects of this project"