Galway Film Centre has announced James Ward and Caitríona Coyne as the recipients of the new 2017 funding scheme, Dig Where You Stand.
Director James Ward will work with Producer Will Smith to produce a documentary on Veronica Ncube, a former aslyum seeker from South Africa who now resides in Galway. The film will be a powerful intimate portrait of Veronica which will delve into her experiences as an asylum seeker in the Direct Provisions Systems in Ireland and her future aspirations to be an opera singer.
Veronica NcubeCaitríona Coyne will work with Slip Jig Media to create a bilingual documentary that delves into the Irish psyche and questions the strange dichotomy of love and fear, which Irish people feel towards our native language. It will follow Galway based comedian Áine Gallagher as she addresses this observation in a new show which she is preparing for the Edinburgh Comedy Festival. Áine’s journey will be woven with with stories from Irish learners and speakers which will offer fresh insight into what it means to be an Irish-speaker in modern Ireland and encouragement to future Irish speakers.
As part of the Dig Where You Stand funding scheme both directors will be mentored by Gort based filmmaker Jill Beardsworth. Through the scheme, Galway Film Centre wants to develop a pool of young filmmaking talent in Galway and to offer emerging local filmmakers a chance to develop their talent as documentary filmmakers.
The Dig Where You Stand scheme will also provide opportunities for young and emerging filmmakers from diverse backgrounds to link into the Screen Talent Europe Network and the project will offer a professional progression route for filmmakers with opportunities to connect with their European counterparts.
Both completed documentaries will have their premiere screening in Galway in early 2018.