{"id":4430,"date":"2019-07-19T00:01:08","date_gmt":"2019-07-18T23:01:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cassandravoices.com\/?p=4430"},"modified":"2019-07-19T00:01:08","modified_gmt":"2019-07-18T23:01:08","slug":"archiving-the-recent-past-the-loopline-collection","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/casswp.eutonom.eu\/index.php\/2019\/07\/19\/archiving-the-recent-past-the-loopline-collection\/","title":{"rendered":"Archiving the Recent Past: the Loopline Collection"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In 2015, documentary filmmaker and Director of Loopline Film, S\u00e9 Merry Doyle, and the Irish Film Institute, received funding from the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland to archive the company\u2019s collection. Over a twelve-month period, S\u00e9 and I fully catalogued 16mm and 35mm films, tapes in a variety of formats, and numerous audio materials. These were simultaneously preserved and digitised at <a href=\"https:\/\/ifiplayer.ie\/loopline\/\">IFI Film Archive<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The Loopline Collection comprises some thirty-eight titles made over its thirty-five-year lifespan. There are full documentaries and TV series as well as previously unseen pilot materials for projects that, for one reason or another, never got the green light. These outtakes are the vein of gold running through the collection.<\/p>\n<p>The most accomplished works, in my opinion, are the full-length biographical documentaries on Irish artists: \u2018John Henry Foley \u2013 Sculptor of the Empire\u2019 (S\u00e9 Merry Doyle, 2007), \u2018Patrick Kavanagh &#8211; No Man\u2019s Fool\u2019 (Merry Doyle, 1994), \u2018James Gandon &#8211; A Life\u2019 (Merry Doyle, 1996), and \u2018Patrick Scott \u2013 Golden Boy\u2019 (Merry Doyle, 2003).<\/p>\n<p>Later films focus on journeys made by artists across geographical and emotional frontiers: \u2018John Ford \u2013 Dreaming the Quiet Man\u2019 (S\u00e9 Merry Doyle, 2011) and \u2018Jimmy Murakami \u2013 Non-Alien\u2019 (Merry Doyle, 2014). Other productions deal with the issue of Irish Republicanism as seen from the female perspective: \u2018Mair\u00e9ad Farrell &#8211; an Unfinished Conversation\u2019 (Martina Durac, 2014), \u2018Kathleen Lynn &#8211; Rebel Doctor\u2019 (Merry Doyle, 2011), and the series \u2018Mna an IRA\u2019 (Durac, 2012).<\/p>\n<p>Working-class life in Dublin is a prominent theme. The 1984 observational documentary, \u2018Looking On\u2019, focuses on efforts by artists and communal activists to highlight the inner city community\u2019s struggle against property developers and Dublin Corporation. It\u2019s a theme taken up and developed in later works: \u2018Essie\u2019s Last Stand\u2019 (Liam McGrath, Merry Doyle, 1999), the elegiac \u2018Alive-Alive-O &#8211; A Requiem for Dublin\u2019 (Merry Doyle, 1999), and in rushes for a proposed documentary on the regeneration of Ballymun in 2004 &#8211; which, sadly, was never completed.<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>Expressionist Art in Ireland\u00a0 <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Working through the materials, I was struck by Merry Doyle\u2019s persistent exploration of expressionist art in Ireland, a subject scarcely touched on in Irish documentary. His extraordinarily intimate portrait of artist Patrick Scott, \u2018Golden Boy\u2019, traces the development of expressionist art in Ireland since World War II.<\/p>\n<p>Similarly, \u2018Lament for Patrick Ireland\u2019 (Merry Doyle, 2010) depicts Irish-American artist Brian O\u2019Doherty\u2019s artistic response to the Northern Ireland conflict. Rushes for another Loopline series, \u2018Soisc\u00e9al Ph\u00e1draic\u2019, look at art exhibitions by modernists Scott and Robert Ballagh.<\/p>\n<p>One of the most ambitious of several unfinished projects is the substantial footage shot between 1999 and 2007 for \u2018Outside Looking In\u2019, a planned documentary series on the impact of modernist art on Ireland. The unseen rushes focus on architects Scott-Tallon-Walker, and artists Robert Ballagh, Dorothy Cross, Michael Cullen, Louis Le Broquy, Ann Madden, Patrick Scott, Sean Scully and Corban Walker.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018Outside Looking In\u2019 also features a detailed report on the \u2018Breaking Ground\u2019 art retrospective exhibition at the Irish Museum of Modern Art (IMMA) in 2000, which includes a fascinating interview with then-Director, Declan McGonagle. There are filmed reports on Irish artists Annie Tallentire and Katie Holton representing Ireland at the Venice Biennale in 1999 and 2003; an item on video installation artist Willie Doherty; and audio of Seamus Heaney reading two poems written for his late friend, architect Robin Walker (the subject of Merry Doyle\u2019s latest award-winning documentary, \u2018Talking to My Father\u2019).<\/p>\n<p>Watching this material, I was reminded of Merry Doyle\u2019s passion and commitment to his projects through the years. He deserves enormous credit for putting together this significant collection of materials for future artists and art historians.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_4540\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-4540\" style=\"width: 900px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-4540 size-full\" src=\"http:\/\/cassandravoices.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/Patrick-Scott-and-S\u00e9-Merry-Doyle.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"900\" height=\"580\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-4540\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Patrick Scott with S\u00e9 Merry Doyle.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><strong><em>Dublin\u2019s Popular Music Scene <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>For those interested in the popular music scene in Dublin from the 1980s to the present, the collection contains some intriguing items. Outtakes from \u2018Looking On\u2019 feature unseen footage of 1980s bands The Atrix and Hotfoot and an early impromptu rooftop show in Sheriff Street by U2.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_4538\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-4538\" style=\"width: 900px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-4538 size-full\" src=\"http:\/\/cassandravoices.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/U2SHERIFFSTREET-Chri1F319A.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"900\" height=\"637\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-4538\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">U2 on Sheriff Street. Photo courtesy of Christine Bond.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Rushes for an unedited tribute concert staged by friends and fellow musicians of guitarist Jimmy Faulkner at the Olympia Theatre in 2008 capture the full show (filmed with four cameras) with performances by Paul Brady, Christy Moore, Mary Stokes, Declan Sinnott, Noel Bridgeman, Ed Deane, Don Baker, Honor Heffernan and others. The show is compered by musical impresario Smiley Bolger and politician Eamonn McCann, and the rushes contain informative and amusing backstage interviews about the Dublin music scene from the 1970s to the millennium.<\/p>\n<p>Other musical treasures include audio rushes of the soundtracks composed for the later documentaries by multi-instrumentalist Ger Kiely and complete audio takes of traditional Dublin ballads sung by musicologist Frank Harte for \u2018Alive-Alive-O\u2019. These are records of a vibrant, but largely unexplored, Dublin music scene.<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>Frosty Interview<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Going through the tapes, it became obvious that some of the finished documentaries could have been further enhanced by more extensive use of the rushes. We can see, in retrospect, that the requirements of TV scheduling put constraints on the running times of the documentaries.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s one of the great benefits of this particular archive project that that these outtakes can now be encountered and enjoyed as stand-alone pieces. For example, Merry Doyle\u2019s personalised portrait of poet Patrick Kavanagh, \u2018Patrick Kavanagh &#8211; No Man\u2019s Fool\u2019, is heartfelt and full of intimate moments, but the outtakes flesh out the story considerably. There are in-depth, previously-unseen interviews with actor T.P. McKenna, author Dermot Healy, poet John Montague and other people close to the poet.<\/p>\n<p>A fascinating sequence with Kavanagh\u2019s brother, Peter, at the installation of a plaque at Parson\u2019s Bookshop on Baggot Street, sheds light on the controversial relationship of the siblings. Audio recordings of actor Gerard McSorley\u2019s beautiful readings of Kavanagh\u2019s poems, only partially used in the film\u2019s final cut, emphasise the genius of both actor and poet.<\/p>\n<p>Writers Dermot Healy and Leland Bardwell perform a wonderful dialogue on the subject of Kavanagh\u2019s women at the Model Arts Theatre, Sligo. A hitherto unseen lecture on Kavanagh by poet Paul Durcan at a Carrickmacross hotel is affectionate and funny.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_4541\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-4541\" style=\"width: 900px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-4541 size-full\" src=\"http:\/\/cassandravoices.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/Patrick-Kavanag-location-shot.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"900\" height=\"492\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-4541\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">On location, \u2018Patrick Kavanagh &#8211; No Man\u2019s Fool\u2019.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The same can be said regarding the rushes for the historical biography, \u2018James Gandon &#8211; A Life\u2019, which feature lengthy interviews with the late architect Sam Stephenson, art historian Edward McParland, and conservationist David Slattery.<\/p>\n<p>There\u2019s a wonderful guided tour of Gandon\u2019s architecture along Dublin\u2019s River Liffey by art historian Maurice Craig, which was not included in the film and comprises a colourful history lesson in itself. The rushes for the scenes in which veteran Irish actor Christopher Casson plays an ageing Gandon show him engaged on the final work in his distinguished career. One of the best things here is a spectacularly frosty interview with former Taoiseach, Charles J. Haughey at his Gandon-built home, Abbeyville, in North Dublin.<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>Street Traders<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The copious rushes for one of the finest Loopline productions, the personal and impressionistic \u2018Alive-Alive-O: A Requiem for Dublin\u2019, are astonishing. They encompass an unprecedented record of the suppression by the state of Dublin\u2019s traditional street traders, the closure of marketplaces, the heroin epidemic that devastated the inner city communities in the 80s, and the work of TDs and social activists in defending the workers livelihoods.<\/p>\n<p>Among the outtakes is interview with the the fiercely articulate late T.D. Tony Gregory. The collection also has lovely audio recordings of actor Jasmine Russell reading commissioned verse by contemporary working-class poet, Paula Meehan.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_4542\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-4542\" style=\"width: 900px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-4542 size-full\" src=\"http:\/\/cassandravoices.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/TRADERS-4-D.SPEIRS.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"900\" height=\"601\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-4542\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Supporters of Tony Gregory. Photo courtesy of Derek Spiers.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The rushes for \u2018John Henry Foley \u2013 Sculptor of the Empire\u2019 are equally detailed and rich. They feature, for example, lengthy interviews with sculptor Cliodhna Cullen, art historians Paula Murray and John Turpin, Senator David Norris and then-Director of the National Museum, Pat Wallace.<\/p>\n<p>Also contained herein are extended rushes of two intriguing journeys: one to Cambridge, England, where Foley\u2019s statue of General Hardinge, once proudly displayed in Ireland, now stands in a relative\u2019s country garden; and another to Barrack Pore in Calcutta, India, a cemetery for decommissioned imperial statues. The high production values of the finished documentary are reflected in the breadth and richness of these rushes.<\/p>\n<p>Watching the outtakes of \u2018Patrick Scott &#8211; Golden Boy\u2019, one becomes aware of the closeness between director Merry Doyle and Scott. In a lengthy week-long interview, the modest, Zen-like Scott reflects on his career in an Ireland inimical to non-representational art.<\/p>\n<p>There are many interviews never used in the final cut with people such as art critic Bruce Arnold and others intimate with Scott. An interview with Scott\u2019s friend, the late poet Seamus Heaney, is of particular interest. Merry Doyle has done Scott an enormous service in recording this material for future generations. It all amounts to a truly compendious overview of the history of modern art in Ireland.<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>Folk Art <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>\u2018Hidden Treasures\u2019 (Anne O\u2019Leary, 1998) is a four-part anthropological series looking at Irish folk-life. It was structured around 16mm field recordings of traditional rural crafts made by the National Museum of Ireland from the 1950s to the 1970s, which Merry Doyle had restored and digitised before inviting folklorist O\u2019Leary to direct.<\/p>\n<p>The series focuses on man\u2019s relationship with the sea, traditional agricultural tools and technologies, and the role of ritual in rural life. Haunting colour footage shot by cinematographers Brendan Doyle and John T. Davis throughout rural Ireland complements this early archive footage and the rushes add up to a beautiful folklore archive in themselves.<\/p>\n<p>Like its companion piece, the one-off Christmas documentary, \u2018\u00d3 Bh\u00e9al go Beal um Nollag\u2019 (Durac, Vanessa Gildea, 2010), \u2018Hidden Treasures\u2019 provides a final glimpse of quickly fading traditions. (Incidentally, this was not Merry Doyle\u2019s only foray into film archiving. He was also responsible for the 1996 restoration of \u2018O\u2019Donoghue\u2019s Opera\u2019 (Kevin Sheldon, 1965), a lost film featuring The Dubliners, and Peter Lennon\u2019s 1968 documentary, \u2018The Rocky Road to Dublin\u2019.)<\/p>\n<p>One of the finest Loopline productions, \u2018Jimmy Murakami \u2013 Non-Alien\u2019, is a moving account of the animator-director\u2019s attempt to reconcile the events of a troubled childhood by journeying from his adopted home in Dublin back to the site of trauma \u2013 Tule Lake, California. There his family were incarcerated in a Japanese-American concentration camp during World War II.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_4543\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-4543\" style=\"width: 900px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-4543 size-full\" src=\"http:\/\/cassandravoices.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/JImmy-Murakmai-at-Tule-Lake-.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"900\" height=\"600\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-4543\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">JImmy Murakmai at Tule Lake.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>As in the Scott portrait, the rushes here reveal Merry Doyle\u2019s close relationship with his subject (he and Murakami had been friends for years before the film\u2019s production). While the film itself is a moving account of Murakami\u2019s spiritual journey, the rushes show the ways in which Merry Doyle attempts, over many takes, to get to the core of his friend\u2019s emotional conflict.<\/p>\n<p>While Murakami drives along a Californian highway at sunset, Paddy Jordan\u2019s camera captures perfectly the emotions coming to his face, as producer Vanessa Gildea sobs in the back seat of the car. As the journey comes to an end, the rushes show how the director\u2019s patience is rewarded by the arrival of an exquisite sunset that permeates the closing scenes.<\/p>\n<p>Sadly, Jimmy Murakami passed away not long after the film\u2019s release, but, as with the Patrick Scott project, Merry Doyle and crew have created a staggering portrait of this unique artist for the generations.<\/p>\n<p>In \u2018Kathleen Lynn \u2013 Rebel Doctor\u2019, Merry Doyle and crew tell the little-known story of the suffragette, Republican and doctor and her conflict with the independent state in establishing Saint Ultan\u2019s Children\u2019s Hospital in Dublin.<\/p>\n<p>The rushes feature in-depth interviews with feminist historians Sinead McCoole, Loretta Clarke, Margaret \u00d3 h\u00d3gartaigh, author of a book on Lynn, Honor O\u2019Brolchain, historian Margaret MacCurtain, feminist activist and historian Dr. Margaret Ward, medical experts Dr. Barbara Stokes and Dr. Rosarie Barry, as well as a touching interview with 109-year-old Bridget Dirrane, author, Republican and former staff member at Saint Ultans.<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>The Quiet Man<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Merry Doyle\u2019s hugely-ambitious work, \u2018John Ford \u2013 Dreaming the Quiet Man\u2019 is, like \u2018Jimmy Murakami \u2013 Non-Alien\u2019, another story of an artist\u2019s journey into the past.<\/p>\n<p>Seven years in the making, it\u2019s Merry Doyle\u2019s imagining of Irish-American film director John Ford\u2019s dream of returning to Ireland to make the film \u2018The Quiet Man\u2019 (1952), as well as a conscious attempt to redress the film\u2019s negative reputation on home ground.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_4545\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-4545\" style=\"width: 900px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-4545 size-full\" src=\"http:\/\/cassandravoices.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/Scorsese.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"900\" height=\"675\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-4545\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">With Martin Scorsese (l).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The rushes include a detailed interview with American director, Martin Scorsese, in which he discusses the poetry of Ford\u2019s film and themes of emigration and community. American director, Peter Bogdanovich, talks about his personal relationship with Ford and his deeply-felt affection for The Quiet Man. Dublin-born Hollywood actress, Maureen O\u2019Hara, the film\u2019s female lead, entertainingly reveals her relationships with the difficult Ford, actor John Wayne and her experience working on the film.<\/p>\n<p>In an interview with Jay Cocks at the Algonquin Hotel in New York, the scriptwriter explains how the boxing scene from Ford\u2019s film influenced the ringside scenes in Scorsese\u2019s \u2018Raging Bull\u2019. John Wayne\u2019s daughter Aissa talks about how Ford, O\u2019Hara and Wayne struggled to get the film financed. American academics Joseph McBride and William C. Dowling speak almost obsessively about Ford and \u2018The Quiet Man\u2019. The rushes also contain some breath-taking footage of Monument Valley, Utah, where Ford shot many of his Westerns, through the lens of regular Loopline cameraman, Paddy Jordan.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_4544\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-4544\" style=\"width: 900px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-4544 size-full\" src=\"http:\/\/cassandravoices.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/Dreaming-Quiet-Man-Maureen-OHara-Glengarriff-Film-Festival-2011..jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"900\" height=\"750\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-4544\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">S\u00e9 Merry Doyle &amp; Maureen O&#8217;Hara at The Maureen O&#8217;Hara Film Festival, at the Eccles Hotel, Glengarriff, Co. Cork.<br \/>Picture: John Delea\/Muskerry Photos.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><strong><em>Poetry and Literature<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>While the collection focuses mainly on the visual arts in Ireland, there is a special emphasis on poetry and literature. An outtake from the \u2018Soisc\u00e9al Ph\u00e1draic\u2019 arts magazine series, for example, features an amicable interview with writer John McGahern at the Galway launch of his \u2018Memoir\u2019 in 2005.<\/p>\n<p>The popular Imprint series, produced and broadcast between 1999 and 2001, features interviews with national and international writers and is presented by poet Theo Dorgan. Irish writers interviewed are poets Eavan Boland, Dermot Bolger, Anthony Cronin, Brendan Kennelly, John Montague, Michael Longley and Nuala N\u00ed Domhnaill; novelists Leland Bardwell, Maeve Binchy, Roddy Doyle, Jennifer Johnston, Bernard MacLaverty, Joseph O\u2019Connor and Colm Toib\u00edn; and playwrights Thomas Kilroy and Hugh Leonard. International writers interviewed are Margaret Atwood, J.G.Ballard, Thomas Keneally, Richard Ford, Doris Lessing, Edward W. Said and Gore Vidal. These interviews have never been seen before in their entirety. An hilarious interview with American writer Kinky Freedman is one of my personal favourites.<\/p>\n<p>The Imprint series also featured especially commissioned short films on poets and writers by new Irish directors: Maurice Healy\u2019s charming short on legendary sports journalist Con Houlihan; Paul Duane\u2019s films on novelists Patrick McCabe and J.M O\u2019Neill; Art O\u2019Leary\u2019s meditation on Dublin\u2019s War Memorial Park; Hilary Dully\u2019s comic take on the poetry of Rita Ann Higgins; Barrie Dowdall\u2019s atmospheric short on Wexford playwright Billy Roach; Donald Taylor Black\u2019s rumination on Russian poet and novelist Boris Pasternak; Brendan J. Byrne\u2019s lyrical and experimental pieces on poet Louis McNiece, novelist Brian Moore and poet Ciaran Carson; Eve Morrison\u2019s visit to the Dublin Inner City Folklore Project; Niamh Barrett on novelist Marian Keyes; S\u00e9 Merry Doyle on Charles Dickens in Ireland and his short about Oscar Wilde, \u2018Wild About Oscar\u2019; and David Barker on writer Carlo Gebler. The rushes for the Con Houlihan short make for particularly absorbing viewing.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_4546\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-4546\" style=\"width: 900px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-4546 size-full\" src=\"http:\/\/cassandravoices.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/San-Fran.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"900\" height=\"675\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-4546\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">In San Francisco.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><strong><em>Master Class<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>It struck me that the rushes and outtakes constitute a kind of master class in documentary filmmaking. Merry Doyle and crew members are present throughout and the process of filmmaking is often laid bare: the filming of establishing shots; the pursuit of the best takes; the honing in on ideas that arise during interviews; as well as the playfulness of the crew after a successful filming session.<\/p>\n<p>An unfinished project, \u2018Documentary Where Art Thou?\u2019, a series of interviews with prominent international documentary filmmakers filmed at workshops funded by Screen Training Ireland, examines the subject of documentary production itself. The interviews are loose and informal, allowing directors Jon Bang Carlsen, Molly Dineen, D.A. Pennebaker and Chris Hegadus, John T. Davis and Peter Wintonick to engage with the nuts and bolts of documentary theory and practice. Russian director, Maria Goldovskaya, is also filmed giving a class on her work as a political filmmaker.<\/p>\n<p>The rushes shot by the Loopline Film crew for projects that were never completed give a clear picture of the traditional difficulties of raising funding for serious cultural documentaries. Watching the footage shot for a projected film on writer Lafcadio Hearn (Greek-born but of Irish heritage), drove home to me how significant and entertaining such a film would have been and it becomes quite obvious that an opportunity had been missed.<\/p>\n<p>The unfolding events are funny and often moving as Merry Doyle\u2019s camera accompanies great-grandson Bon Koizumi and his wife in the footsteps of the writer around Dublin, Waterford and Mayo. The preservation of these materials at the IFI leaves open the possibility that these projects might eventually be completed.<\/p>\n<p>Equally tantalising are the rushes for a documentary portrait of Irish writer, historian and critic, Ulick O\u2019Connor. In retrospect, it\u2019s a shame that Merry Doyle was unable to raise funding to complete the project as the pilot material shows a refined literary mind at work.<\/p>\n<p>O\u2019Connor delivers a detailed lecture on the Irish Literary Renaissance at the United Arts Club in Dublin and gives an eyebrow-raising interview at his Dublin home. At one point he reads from his translation of an Irish-language poem by Brendan Behan on Oscar Wilde\u2019s sexuality. It\u2019s an unknown poem which could be read as Behan\u2019s own coming-out statement (camouflaged, ironically, by the Irish language).<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_4547\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-4547\" style=\"width: 900px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-4547 size-full\" src=\"http:\/\/cassandravoices.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/SE0003.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"900\" height=\"633\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-4547\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">S\u00e9 Merry Doyle.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><strong><em>Life Goes On<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Abandoned footage (by Merry Doyle and Linda O\u2019Sullivan) for a portrait of the late socialist politician Jim Kemmy, a humanist and visionary, once more indicates the short-sightedness of funders. The rushes outline Kemmy\u2019s trade union work in the 1970s and 80s, his championing of the working-class, his contribution to the anti-apartheid movement, his work on family planning and his battle against the Catholic Church.<\/p>\n<p>Merry Doyle\u2019s pilot material focuses on this important figure through informative interviews with Kemmy\u2019s brother Joe, Labour TD Janice O\u2019Sullivan, and Kemmy\u2019s partner and co-worker, Patsy Harrold. Another incomplete project from 2002 comprises sketches for a portrait of Limerick old-school Republican, Richard Behal.<\/p>\n<p>While the incomplete projects in the Loopline Collection throw much light on the difficulties of raising funding for serious social, cultural and historical documentaries, one can only be grateful for Loopline Film\u2019s commitment and determination to pursue important subjects through creative storytelling.<\/p>\n<p>Thankfully, the IFI and the BAI have been insightful enough to preserve for oncoming generations this broad panorama of Irish social, artistic and cultural life across two centuries. It\u2019s a fitting testimony to the lifelong work and commitment of S\u00e9 Merry Doyle and his contributors at Loopline Film over thirty-five years.<\/p>\n<p>Life, meanwhile, goes on as Merry Doyle steers Loopline Film into the future with two fresh projects: \u2018John Huston \u2013 A Man Without a Country\u2019, the story of American film director John Huston\u2019s adoption of Ireland as a home in the 1960s; and a work-in-progress, \u2018Hanna &amp; Me\u2019, the story of Micheline Sheehy Skeffington\u2019s retracing of her great-grandmother Hanna Sheehy Skeffington\u2019s journey to America in the 1920s as a suffragette and political activist.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In 2015, documentary filmmaker and Director of Loopline Film, S\u00e9 Merry Doyle, and the Irish Film Institute, received funding from the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland to archive the company\u2019s collection. Over a twelve-month period, S\u00e9 and I fully catalogued 16mm and 35mm films, tapes in a variety of formats, and numerous audio materials. These were [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":129,"featured_media":4539,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,1],"tags":[204],"class_list":["post-4430","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-culture","category-uncategorized","tag-2019july"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/casswp.eutonom.eu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4430","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/casswp.eutonom.eu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/casswp.eutonom.eu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/casswp.eutonom.eu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/129"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/casswp.eutonom.eu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4430"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/casswp.eutonom.eu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4430\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/casswp.eutonom.eu\/index.php\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/casswp.eutonom.eu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4430"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/casswp.eutonom.eu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4430"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/casswp.eutonom.eu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4430"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}