Great news from America with word that Ciaran Creagh’s In View and Ian Hunt Duffy’s Gridlock have won awards at the Rhode Island International Film Festival. In View won Best Screenplay for writer/director Creagh, while Gridlock won Best Narrative Short, as voted for by the Youth Jury.
In View is the story of the implosion of Ruth Donnelly, a happy married and accomplished Garda detective whose drunken indiscretion while pregnant led to the loss of her baby at birth. Blaming Ruth and unable to cope, her husband takes his own life leaving Ruth alone. Five years later Ruth’s life of burdening guilt is dominated by rage, alcoholism, depression and self-loathing, leaving her to eventually conclude that there is only one way for her to make amends with the world.
The film features a star-making turn from Caoilfhionn Dunne (Love/Hate) in the lead, supported by Ciaran McMenamin (One Hundred Mornings), Stuart Graham (Hunger), Maria McDermotteroe (Veronica Guerin), Aoife King (Mammal), Eoin Quinn (limp.) and Gerard McSorley (In the Name of the Father). In View is produced by Dave Byrne of Underground Cinema.
Gridlock is a thriller set during a traffic jam on a country road. When a little girl goes missing from one of the cars, her father forms a desperate search party to find her, and soon everyone is a suspect.
The short features some of Ireland’s finest actors, Moe Dunford (Vikings), Peter Coonan (Love/Hate), and Amy De Bhrún (The Stag). They are ably supported by Ronan Leahy (Pursuit), Steve Wall (Dark Touch), Joe Mullins (Pilgrim Hill), Robyn Dempsey (Two Hearts), Tristan Heanue (Today), Patrick Murphy (Made Ordinary), and Aoife King (Mammal). Gridlock was written by Hunt Duffy and Darach McGarrigle, and produced by Simon Doyle for Fail Safe Films. Cinematography is by Narayan Van Maele, with sound from Nikki Moss, and editing by Eoin McGuirk.
Producer Doyle attended the festival and was keen to praise the support of Culture Ireland in getting him to Rhode Island. Fail Safe were also producers on the other Irish short to play at the festival, Vincent Gallagher’s Love is a Sting.
Flickers’ Rhode Island International Film Festival (RIIFF) takes place every year in Providence and Newport, Rhode Island as well as satellite locations throughout the state. This year it celebrated its 20th anniversary.