New York based Icarus films nab Irish documentary ‘A Boatload of Wild Irishmen’ for North American distribution. The feature length documentary will be released in the US in autumn. It is expected to have a small scale theatrical release and a DVD release.
The Léirithe le Mac Dara Ó Curraidhín production, in association with Bright Spark Studios (U.K.), and Minerva Productions of Lincoln University, has already aired in Irish (An tÉireannach Fáin) on TG4 in December 2010 and has sold broadcast licenses to Television Ontario in Canada and Canal+ in Poland. International sales are being handled by London based sales agency Wavelength Pictures.
Produced and directed by Mac Dara Ó Curraidhín (Synge and the Western World) and written by Emmy Award winning scriptwriter Brian Winston (World in Action), ‘A Boatload of Wild Irishmen’ profiles the life of Irish documentary filmmaker Robert Flaherty (Man of Aran, Louisiana Story).
Robert Flaherty was the first filmmaker to see that the everyday life of real people could be moulded into dramatic, entertaining narratives. However, this approach to manipulation of reality also helped create cultural stereotypes in cinema. ‘A Boatload of Wild Irishmen’ is narrated by Aran islander Macdara Ó Fátharta and features imagery from Flaherty’s documentaries.
The doc was funded by the Irish Film Board, TG4, EM Media, MEDIA and BAI Sound and Vision Fund. ‘A Boatload of Wild Irishmen’ will be showing at several New Zealand Film Festivals (Auckland festival, Wellington, Dunedin and Christchurch) throughout July and August.
