West Cork’s film stars ready to rise

IT was announced this week that there would be changes to the senior cycle programme in our second level schools.

This is part of an overall redevelopment of the senior cycle which Education Minister Norma Foley announced in March 2022.

So this week the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NCCA) finally published more details on the proposed curriculum changes for a number of senior cycle subjects. This includes biology, physics, chemistry and business, but also two new subjects – climate action & sustainable development – and drama, film and theatre studies.

The latter will be especially welcomed by a whole cohort of students who will be starting fifth year after September 2025, when it will apply to them.

With such a huge interest in the creative arts of theatre and film, it’s a wonder it took so long for our schools to catch up.

From primary level up, children participate in performance shows in their schools – usually starting out with the obligatory Christmas show or nativity play, with creative teachers usually finding a role for even the most shy youngster.

By the time our little thespians reach second level, the shows have become much more sophisticated and those who fear public performance can pick up roles in sound production, music, lighting, stage management, make-up and more.

In fact it was often in such educational situations that the great actors and musicians of today first dipped their toes into their future professions. And so it is hugely encouraging to see the government investing in the subject at exam level.

This week, coincidentally, we are reporting on the great success of Bantry film-maker Damian McCarthy whose horror/thriller Oddity is currently showing in his hometown.

Damian began his working life as an electrician, but during Covid he started to do more screenwriting, which until then had just been his hobby. Now he has created a whole new profession for himself – and one that has brought much joy to those fans of the psychological horror genre, with this, his second, movie.

Damian has also acknowledged the potential of West Cork in the film industry. Indeed this area has been punching above its weight when it comes to movie and TV shows for many years.

In recent times, the story of Sophie Toscan du Plantier has drawn numerous filmmakers, podcasters and even Sky and Netflix to the area, and there are plans for another movie to be filmed here about her murder.

Broadcaster and author Graham Norton drew a lot of attention to the area when he successfully pitched for his debut novel Holding to be filmed here by ITV. Indeed it is often West Cork residents, armed with great foresight, a local knowledge and good contacts who bring the next big idea to fruition on our doorsteps.

A lot of this creativity may perhaps have found its genesis in the confidence which was unexpectedly bestowed on West Cork as a location by David Puttnam’s choice of Union Hall, Castlehaven and the surrounds for his movie War of the Buttons with similar accolades bestowed on us some years later via Ken Loach’s The Wind that Shakes the Barley.

These days, the energetic organisers of the ever-growing and hugely popular Fastnet Film Festival joke about holding a festival that annually attracts A-listers to ‘the town with no cinema’ – but where the whole community works together to provide excellent venues that keep the punters coming back every year.

Out of all of this activity has come the birth of West Cork Film Studios on the Baltimore Road outside Skibbereen – where the progressive owners spotted a niche in the market for onsite facilities and talent that could benefit from the region’s growing attraction for film-makers.

And the availability of the site means, in turn, that it may attract more movies to West Cork.

Given that the studios are within striking distance of stunning coastal locations and landscapes is simply an added bonus for directors and producers.

Add to all this the fact that the art of film-making will now be a part of the senior cycle curriculum and you would have to conclude that the future looks bright for the movie business in West Cork.