THE filmmakers at Skibbereen company Stori Creative have received €31,500 in funding from RTÉ’s Storyland project.
The firm, which is based at the Ludgate hub, was commissioned by RTÉ and Northern Ireland Screen as part of the Storyland series.
Storyland is an online drama series that gives emerging Irish creative talent an opportunity to make original Irish short films available to a national and global audience on the RTÉ Player.
Speaking to The Southern Star, Stori Creative’s company director and former CEO of the Ludgate, Gráinne Dwyer said that they were all delighted at the funding and looked forward to their short film Yellow Bird reaching audiences, both at home and abroad.
‘We are the only Cork-based company to receive funding and we are delighted that we can showcase the talent here in West Cork,’ Gráinne said.
Yellow Bird, which is 21 minutes long, was shot on location in Skibbereen, Castletownshend and Drishane House last August.
Its estimated impact on the local economy was €77,000, and a crew of 25, including many local people drafted in for the acting roles.
Catherine Field plays the lead role, alongside Fachtna O Driscoll, Aoife Moore and Maurice Thom.
Gráinne wrote and directed the film, along with producers Fiona Dwyer and Zoe Brennan Whitmore.
She wanted to highlight two major challenges facing Irish society today – the housing crisis and the plight of refugees.
‘Yellow Bird tells the story of an elderly woman who, faced with eviction from her home by her own daughter, takes in a refugee and discovers that freedom takes on a new relative meaning for the pair,’ Gráinne said.
The short movie, as well as another five award-winning short films, is now available to view online on the RTE player at rte.ie.
Gráinne was also delighted to reveal that the film will attract a general audience when it is shown on RTÉ1 before Christmas.
‘We hope we’ve shown that you don’t have to based in Dublin, or even in a large urban centre, to be able to produce high quality creative films and art,’ said Grainne.
She added: ‘Being a recipient of this fund is a testament to the belief that there should be further focus and investment in production in the south west region, given the fact that Cork was recently exempt from the State-backed WRAP fund which supports filmmaking outside of the Dublin/Wicklow region.’
