Discoveries from Ireland World Cinema

A journey through the memories and hopes of people who have been displaced in life, exploring how they find their link to home.

"SOUTH" tells the story of Tom (Darragh O'Toole) a young man struggling through his father's recent passing. After finding a photo of his estranged mother Tom decides to search for the only family he has left.

A breathtaking journey through Ireland's Graney Valley, rich in natural beauty, mythology, and cultural heritage, this documentary celebrates a cherished landscape through poetry, music, and memory, while calling for its preservation for generations to come.

Collage short film navigating through endless streams of digital content.

Royal Navy recruits firing cannons and rifles on board a ship.

The Talk chronicles the life changing conversation that takes between father and son when staunchly unionist father Dennis walks in on his son Barry in bed with a man. However, Barry isn't the only one hiding a secret from the family.

The Lick of Death follows Clyde Saxophone in another dastardly case. A new mysterious criminal has emerged and it’s up to Clyde Saxophone to stop them. Does he have what it takes to solve this enigma? Or will he get lost in the sauce? Laugh, cry, vomit, and piss yourself just a little bit in this breakout classic from award-winning directors Dan Griffiths and Magnus Paulak

A team of experts unravels the secrets concealed within this historical battleground, shedding light on a narrative that predates any battlefield discovery made to date. The revelations unearthed in this episode are set to reshape our understanding of ancient conflicts and the evolution of warfare.

Filmed collaboratively during lockdown, this short film is an exploration of the hidden moments in life that typically go unnoticed, and the acceptance of our given situations through appreciation for the mundanity of existence.

Flyboy' is a quirky, magical tale following the creation of a wooden aviator and his plane. After the death of his inventor, an elderly toymaker, Flyboy is left in the back garden of the house on the hill as a weather vane. As the seasons pass he remains routed to the same spot until one fateful day a young boy finds his way into the garden.

In 1960's Dublin, a young working class singer falls pregnant at an inopportune time, changing the course of her life.

Between the all-too-familiar prison walls and his mother's house, Ryan grapples with himself, eventually finding an escape with the sheep in the verdant fields of Northern Ireland.

Ireland’s great houses, towers and castles, including Yeats’ Tower House, Bunratty Castle, Butler Castle and Castletown House.

A young woman, suffering from loneliness, attempts to create a beautiful, meaningful opera with the help of her talking teddy bear.

A death in the family leads to an interesting meal for the mourners.

How do recycled architectures of containment complicate and unsettle ideas of contemporary Irish nationalism? Carceral Jigs laces footage of anti-migration protests and talking-head interviews with children’s television tropes, 3D puppetry, and linguistic tongue twisters to consider how control is choreographed through culture, policy, media, and the built environment – and how the spectacle of belonging is maintained and malformed by its systematic denial.

Two siblings, Saoirse and Ben, spend Christmas Eve in a fantasy world within their own imaginations while their parents are absent. They narrate the story of two heroes, Ciara and Benjamin, as they accept a job only they can accomplish under a local King's dire request.

This short film explores how the Grand Canal in Dublin has changed over the years. The voiceover provided by Irish novelist, short story writer and humourist John D. Sheridan, notes how methods of transport have changed and how fewer boats and barges now use the waterway. The aural memories are illustrated by poetic footage of the canal in the 1960s.

Previously unheard voices are manifest on recordings. Extinct flora/fauna provide raw materials for magnetic video/audio-tape. Media archaeology reveals deeper content.

There is an inherent understanding of the grieving process when a loved one is lost. But what if that person isn’t gone? What does grief mean then? In collaboration with the artist Asbestos, Killeen’s unconventional documentary explores the lived experience of Alzheimer’s whilst also honouring the ties of family. Considering the simultaneous fragility and fortitude of memory, it concludes that we can never truly lose our loved ones as long as we remember them.

Experienced at the threshold of Samhain—when the veil between worlds is said to thin—the installation invites viewers into a passage toward the Otherworld. Navigating a twilight terrain, they encounter a layered constellation of Irish history, folklore, literature, and music, drifting from pagan myth to contemporary political memory, including the Troubles. The work unfolds as a dreamlike traversal of the island’s subconscious, where temporalities overlap and multiple narratives coexist without resolution. The landscapes of Benign Land are composed from 3D photogrammetry models captured by the artist across Ireland. Sites associated with myth, industry, politics, and literature are dismantled and reassembled into speculative terrains, navigable via controller. As viewers move through these environments, shifting perspectives and plural histories emerge, foregrounding the instability of place, memory, and national narrative.

An unusual interview becomes an extraordinary race.

On the quest for intimacy in the middle of a global pandemic, Tar and Anna meet for the first time in the hopes of having a socially distanced hook up. No touching, just (attempted) dirty talk.

A young woman, suffering from loneliness, attempts to create a beautiful, meaningful opera with the help of her talking teddy bear.

What can you do when you’ve accidentally smashed the local statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary? The only thing you can do: frame your older brother.

A horror short film.

Violent Max Punchface gets trapped in an alien land with only some friendly sheep for company/punch practice.

Inspired by Mike Scott's recent memoir Adventures of a Waterboy, this film - the first full Waterboys film - will follow Mike and his band recording a new album in 2018, and will look back over a 30 year musical odyssey "ever in search of new sources of inspiration".

Over 8 years, a small fisherman puts himself, as 'David against Goliath', in the heart of the new reform of the Common Fisheries in Brussels, to try to understand and change the system that took everything from him.

Set in 1912, 'Uisce Beatha' (Gaelic for Whiskey or Water Of Life) is the true story of Tom, a young Irish man who leaves his home in rural Ireland to cross the ocean on the ill-fated 'Titanic'. But a night of celebration beforehand results in a twist that will affect Tom's fate drastically....

Failed pop star. The soul of The Auteurs and Black Box Recorder reconstructs the purgatory of his career in a hilarious testimony that craps on every aspect of the pop music business. Those on the prowl for public relations and commercial potential have come to the wrong place. Haines is a notorious party-pooper, a wet blanket at awards ceremonies, and a sourpuss-that-sulks-in-the-corner. To relate his tragic-comic saga, director Niall McCann organizes a perfidious puzzle filled with talking heads: Jarvis Cocker, Stewart Home, David Peace… (or, as Haines puts it: “people who pretend they have met me”), unforgettable quips by the disgusted composer (“To hell with the common people”, “Britpop never existed”), and a script that resembles Winterbottom gone punk: actors that aspire to walk in Haines’ shoes, frozen images, surprising turns, and historical tiffs.

Natan tells the remarkable story of Bernard Natan, a Romanian immigrant who came to Paris in 1905 and was involved almost immediately with French cinema. He took control of the Pathe film group in the late 1920s and went on to produce epic films such as Les Miserables. But Natan has become largely written out of French film history for various different reasons. Little attention is paid to him centres on his alleged career as a pioneer and performer in early gay and BDSM porn? The story is an excellent one, suffice to say that his ethnicity and subsequent rumours plagued Natan almost from the start of his career. His ‘comeuppance’ for his alleged transgressions is at the heart of this devastating documentary.

A modern tale with twists of traditional Irish folklore, tells of two queer friends, Aoibhinn and Colim, who celebrate their night out at Dublin pride. Everything is well for the pair until something derails their fun; changing Aoibhinns perspective on who she wants to be and what she wants out of life.

The Increasing Melodic Hiss Of Inner Mechanic Malfunction Signifies The Monstrous Destruction Of What Was Presented As “Reality.” Upon Collapse And In Lieu Of Charred Flesh, The Result Of A Methodical Withdrawal Of The Hearts Bloody Essence.

Dexter Glitch is a man’s man. A man so convinced by his own invincibility that he believes he can take on the tide…....and win. A fast furious humorous look at the pointlessness of man taking on nature.

May 8th 2003

Documentary following the struggles of an Irish pub in Tipperary.

a short animation

Set between the nostalgic charm of childhood and the realism of a bleak suburban Dublin housing estate, the story follows two boys over the course of a summer as they attempt to escape their mundane realities and troubled home lives through comic books, monster movies and science fiction. While out fishing in a stream one day, they catch something that will change their world forever.

Annalise and Chris are bringing up their infant son surrounded by love and care. When Chris brings terrible news home, everything becomes under threat. A film about family and an interracial couple under fire. Annalise is at heart of it all.

At the edge of the universe sits a Lighthouse, inside lives The Keeper. The Keeper has dedicated his entire existence to the operation and maintenance of the Lighthouse. After centuries, The Keeper is slowly being worn down and is struggling to keep up with the constant demands of the Lighthouse. We follow him as he confronts his fear of the darkness.

Rulf (19) meets Ziggy (38) for a car hookup, but attraction turns awkward when Ziggy’s internalized homophobia clashes with Rulf’s progressive views. After confronting contradictions and guilt, a flamboyant radio ad breaks the tension. They reconnect through laughter, reconsidering their desires before finally embracing their mutual attraction.

A story of heartbreak…over plants.

Jane is a neglected 12-year-old working in the family shooting range. She’s always been good with guns, and one evening at the local carnival she gets a chance to prove it – forever altering the course of her young life.

The life of Frank Ryan (1902- 1944) who was an Irish radical, International Brigade volunteer in Spain, and Nazi collaborator in Berlin.

The Forgotten Maggies focuses on the human rights aspect surrounding the Magdalene Laundries, including testimonies from women and an exploration of the High Park exhumation where 155 Magdalene women were exhumed in 1993

A Short Film about a nicotine addict's poor mental health.

The making of the next Aaron Aaron Byrne Movie takes a turn for the worst.

Through the stories of everyday citizens resisting the status quo, the new documentary from filmmaker and journalist, Sinéad O'Shea confronts Ireland's recent history of brutality against children and women ranging from corporal punishment to state-sanctioned mother and baby homes.

Paying homage to her experimental contemporary Jack Smith, Vivienne Dick juxtaposes two quite different London landscapes.

A slapstick comedy about an unhappy young girl whose life is turned upside-down when she finds a mysterious runaway with psychic powers in her back garden.

A young medical student visits the Blasket Islands, off the coast of Ireland, during the holidays and becomes charmed with the place and its people. He falls in love with a local girl, who is betrothed to a local man. The two men meet and become fast friends, and the student realizes the hopelessness in his love of the girl of his friend. He leaves but, after his graduation from Trinity College, he returns to cast his lot with these simple fishermen

Snowfall is the story of an anxious young man who has a moving experience at a friend's house party. It's a story of fleeting love, of mixed emotions, and of how we interact with each other.

An assortment of obscure private obsessions, conspiracies and perversions flicker on the verge of incoherence against the context of vast cosmic disaster in Rouzbeh Rashidi’s boldest film to date. This sensory onslaught combines a homage to the subversive humour of Luis Buñuel and Joao Cesar Monteiro with the visionary scope of a demented science fiction epic.

Villagers, led by Dublin singer-songwriter Conor O'Brien, have featured multiple times on the renowned Irish music show Other Voices, delivering intimate performances in St. James' Church, Dingle, and other locations. Their appearances span from 2008 to 2023, showcasing tracks from albums like Becoming a Jackal and Fever Dreams.

Hazardous Materials is about anxiety, loneliness and friendship, told completely nonverbally. Nora has trouble talking to anyone, and is scraping by, while Rachel, a well meaning co-worker, wants to bring her out of her shell. When Rachel invites Nora to a house party - how will Nora react?

On a strip of film exist a pile of clothes and two men in bags. The two men conduct their lives in isolation of each other: when one is awake, the other is asleep in his bag.

In between performing at Dublin's maximum security prison and staging the Conflict Revolution gig Andrew Maxwell performs his sell out, five star performance at the 2008 Edinburgh festival. If you like your comedy funny and your storytelling memorable, this is the live show for you. "I've seen the future of Irish Comedy and its name is Andrew Maxwell" Irish Times

A new strain of a disease that could be dangerous to livestock herds is being discussed on the radio. A cow listening to the show naturally gets a bit worried about the topic.