Short Film Fluency

Following Yu Ming Is Aimn Dom, one of the most talked-about Irish shorts in recent years, Daniel O'Hara return with Fluent Dysphasia, a new take on tangled tongues. Ross Whittaker talks to Daniel, DOP Fergal O'Hanlon, and lead actor Stephen Rea.

Daniel O'Hara's Yu Ming Is Ainm Dom has won awards with such regularity since the Galway Film Fleadh last year that one witty observer was moved to rename it Yu Ming the Merciless. By the time this issue of Film Ireland hits the newsstands, O'Hara's second short film, Fluent Dysphasia, will have debuted at the Cork Film Festival. Having been so successful with his first short, and with Yu Ming Is Ainm Dom also playing in a special programme at the festival, it is inevitable that comparisons will be made.

This short is a darker, more complicated tale. Stephen Rea plays a single father who is more interested in a night out with the lads than communicating with his only daughter, but everything changes after a drunken binge. I met Daniel, and DP Fergal O'Hanlon, before Cork, and found him remarkably untarnished by the success of Yu Ming Is Ainm Dom and unconcerned by the prospect of people comparing his two short films with each other. On the contrary, he couldn't wait to get Fluent Dysphasia in front of an audience.

Ross: Presumably when most people make a film they think it is good but, still, were you surprised with the success of Yu Ming?

Daniel: When it was finished we thought that we had done a good job. It had turned out as planned so I was happy with it, but I certainly didn't expect it to do what it did and to capture people's imagination the way that it did. A big part of it doing so well I think was that it was released in the cinema with In America. That really put it into the public eye and maybe people were more willing to give it publicity because they knew it was available to the public. A lot of people got to see it, which they wouldn't have if it had been restricted to festivals and a few screenings on TG4. But no, I couldn't possibly have expected it to do what it's done. With Fluent Dysphasia I am happy with how it has turned out and it has turned out as planned, so I am as happy as I was when I finished Yu Ming last year. The question now is: was the plan right in the first place? After the experience last year of getting the film in front of an audience, I'm dying to get this film in front of an audience and see what they make of it. After everything, the highest moment was still the first audience reaction at Galway. So, we'll see how this goes in Cork.

The full article is printed in Film Ireland 101