Film Goes Wild in Galway
This year's Galway Film Fleadh included a new segment showcasing fully independent feature films. Sheena Sweeney gets the lowdown on the directors involved, their thoughts on filmmaking, and their experiences at the Fleadh.

Everyone knows what a wild card is, a value in a poker game that’s unpredictable and unknown. At the Galway Film Fleadh this year the game was on for the first time between the audience and seven Irish directors whose films were chosen for the Wild Cards programme. According to Programme Director Felim Mac Dermott, ‘We have long admired filmmakers who are driven by a burning desire to just do something regardless of funding and we wanted that voice to be heard in the overall focus’. These filmmakers set out to make films, for one reason or another, without the usual methods of funding used in this country. The work of others just didn’t fit into the accepted boundaries for TV or cinema. But, despite the fact that the films are selected precisely because they have been made outside ‘traditional funding sources’, Mac Dermott prefers not to comment on that aspect of their selection. He says, ‘I don’t think it’s part of our agenda to engage in the debate of why didn’t these films get funding. Ours is really just to celebrate and champion work that got made outside the system. I’m just not cogniscant of what the Film Board strategy, or other funding partners’ strategy, is. I’m just aware that stuff that’s maybe not the right size or shape often doesn’t find a platform. As a programmer, when I saw works – particularly like with Ivan Kavanagh and Liam O Mochain – it’s really very, very strong work, so my concern stops and ends with that. I’m happy to stand over our choices and say, “this is strong work, I encourage you to see it” to our audiences.’

And of course the perfect place for experimentation and exploring new talent is the rareified setting of a film festival. Even still, Mac Dermott, who has just completed his second year as the Film Fleadh programmer, was aware ‘that audience expectations nowadays are set very high. They expect films with certain production values and polish that films working out of a different kind of budget, and a different mind-set, wouldn’t be in a position to offer. With that in mind, how we used the Wild Card platform this year was that if you bought a ticket for one you could get access to any other on the same day. And it was flagged as “don’t expect this work to be highly polished, expect it to have rough edges”. I feel our audience’s expectations were maybe tempered a bit with the Wild Cards strand, so I wasn’t that concerned that people would come out going “Jesus, that looked terrible”. I think audiences would get to see flashes of brilliance with these filmmakers. I think they get to see commentaries on Irish society that are pretty astute and otherwise mightn’t have a voice.’

The full article is printed in Film Ireland 118.