The Farthest, directed by Emer Reynolds, is the winner of the Director’s Finders Series, providing this Irish director with the opportunity to showcase her feature-length documentary at the Directors Guild of America Theatre in LA on 16th June 2017.
The showcase will take place in front of an invited audience of American filmmakers, key industry personnel, and distributors with the aim of making a name for herself in the US. Selected by a panel of experts, The Farthest tells the story of the trail-blazing Voyager spacecraft.
The story of Voyager is an epic of human achievement, personal drama and almost miraculous success. Launched 16 days apart in Autumn 1977, the twin Voyager space probes have defied all the odds, survived countless near misses and, almost 40 years later, continue to beam revolutionary information across unimaginable distances. With less computing power than a modern hearing aid, they have unlocked the stunning secrets of our Solar System on a journey as revolutionary as the first circumnavigation of the globe and mankind’s first footprint on the moon.
Finders Series, conceived by the Directors Guild of America and facilitated by the Screen Directors Guild of Ireland, presents an Irish director with an opportunity to showcase their film and to have direct access to key industry colleagues in the US. The award spotlights works of fiction, documentary or drama feature submissions from Irish directors who have not secured U.S distribution for their films.
Over the last two decades, Reynolds’ work has spanned feature films, TV Drama and documentary including editing one of the most successful Irish feature films of all time I Went Down. Documentaries Reynolds has worked on include the multi-award-winning, twice Emmy-nominated wildlife feature Broken Tail and the three times Emmy nominated On a River in Ireland made for the BBC & PBS and notable as the most awarded wildlife film in the world of the past two years. Reynolds has also written and directed four short dramas and directed a 6 part drama series Trouble in Paradise for RTE.
This award is supported by Culture Ireland, the Irish Film Board and the Directors Guild of America.
Check out our interview with Emer Reynolds about The Farthest.