Tonight the Galway Film Fleadh will see the World Premiere of new Irish feature film Poster Boys, written and directed by Kilkenny-native Dave Minogue.
Poster Boys is an Irish feature film set across the length and breadth of Ireland that tells the story of broke Al Clancy who embarks on a cross country road trip with his nephew Karl in an attempt to save his job as a poster boy. Poster Boys offers a feel-good comedy road trip experience with a lot of heart while showing off the beauty of the Irish countryside and the quirks of Irish towns across the country.
In the words of the writer, a bet was made at the Galway Film Fleadh in 2018 that Dave Minogue couldn’t get his film Poster Boys shot before the end of the summer. Dave had six weeks to prep, write and shoot the film or he’d lose his star – his ten-year-old nephew, Ryan. He brought his crazy plan to renowned entrepreneur, Bobby Kerr and Bobby liked it, or at least he liked Dave. Either way, he was in. It wouldn’t seem like a lot of money to the likes of Steven Spielberg, but it was to Dave. They had €25,000 to cover the cost of rent, food, accommodation, travel and regular expenses for a crew of eight. In order to juice as much as they could from every last cent, they jumped through a few crazy hoops, from hiring a student from Southampton University so she could rent all the gear for free and supply it to the film, to hiring a crew to match the exact number of available beds at Dave’s parents’ house (loose definition of the word ‘bed’ here), and to conjuring actors, extras and locations out of nowhere on an almost daily basis.
As if the financial constraints weren’t enough to keep them on their toes the team kept getting hit with sheer bad luck; a minor crash resulted in a huge dent to the camper, and more importantly, the budget; the front wheel of an action car (a car that is filmed) fell off while it was being driven to the location, loaded with camera equipment, leaving Dave and the gear stranded at a set of traffic lights on Dublin’s Thomas St. Not one of these incidents was as scary as dropping Ryan home late to his mother (Dave’s sister) and having her nearly shut down the production, or Dave’s parents threatening to kick the crew out every day. And there was Ryan Minogue-Lee – the film’s precocious and charismatic star – exhibiting strong leadership on-set by telling Dave when it was time to move on to the next scene, deciding himself if a take was good enough. There were constant power plays with other actors and crew and of course, Ryan got away with it simply because he was so funny.
Now, against all the odds, the film is finished and will premiere at the Galway Film Fleadh 2020. Throughout the production period it kept getting better, with more and more people coming on and adding their support and energy. There are memorable performances from Keith Duffy, Joe Rooney, Ian Dempsey, Enya Martin, Vyvienne Long and Justine Stafford, and the wonderful creatives at Poster Posse jumped in at the end to give Poster Boys its all-important poster and help make it that bit extra-special.
Poster Boys portrays an initially strained but eventually affectionate relationship between Al Clancy, played by Trevor O’Connell, and his nephew Karl. The comedy and heart of this relationship were influenced heavily by Dave’s relationship with his own nephew, Ryan Minogue-Lee, who plays Karl.
The memorable characters the dynamic duo encounter along their journey are brought to life by Norma Sheehan, Aoife Spratt, Amy Hughes, Keith Duffy, Joe Rooney, Ian Dempsey, Bobby Kerr, Enya Martin, Kieran O’Reilly, Laoisa Sexton and David Thompson.
The film premieres tonight at the 31st Galway Film Fleadh, which will be held online due to the ongoing Covid-19 precautions in Ireland. Tickets can therefore be purchased to watch this epic new film from the comfort of your own home from the Fleadh website. The film will be available to watch from 10pm. https://online.galwayfilmfleadh.com/film/poster-boys/
