Believers

Late last Autumn, Irish Times film critic Michael Dwyer decided there would be a Film Festival in Dublin in the Spring of 2003. With little or no resources, he set to work with Rory Concannon and David McLoughlin. Five months later the Jameson Dublin International Film Festival is ready to roll. Tony Keily talks to Rory Concannon and Michael Dwyer. [Extract]

TK When did the idea for the festival hatch?

MD A lot of people were talking about the absence of a festival last year. I was talking to David MacLoughlin, who I worked with on the DFF way back. It was felt there was a vacuum and if another year went by without a festival the momentum could be lost. Then I was so enthused about Toronto, there was so much there that I knew wouldn't be out by March, that I felt encouraged to go ahead.

TK And there were a large number of Irish-related films at Toronto, given the recent and notorious dearth of releases. I suppose it's a good time to have a festival.

MD That was one of the encouragements. October was very late to start if you want to have an event in March. The pace has been frantic. One of the drawbacks of starting late is availability prints. There are so many festivals now...

RC As far as I'm aware there are thirty in the same week!

TK So the pressure on prints is enormous.

MD We lost a few that way. It hurts. You live with it and look at what you have.

TK At what point did you know the DIFF was going to happen? It must have been difficult at the beginning, with only some seed money from the Arts Council.

RC Last October I bumped into Michael on the street and he told me there was going to be a festival. From that moment I knew it was going to happen, regardless of Arts Council funding. I just knew. There's the space and momentum in Dublin, a space for an audience. The Arts Council funding at the end of the day will be less than 6% of the overall budget.

MD Tiny compared to what Cork or Galway get.

RC The overall budget would be €350-400,000. All of it is raised. Barring less than 10% public money if you add in the City Council contribution, it's all private funding and the box office. We have great support from Jameson. It's a great alignment from them and us. Also Xtravision are doing wonderful promotion for us and helping us to exhibit the new Irish features. That shows a great commitment to the Irish film Industry. The Irish Times too. Without all of that commercial support, there would be no festival. And we did it all in five months. Next year we'll have 10 months.

MD There have been so many imponderables, specially in relation to the availability of people rather than films. It's been tough. In a way the pressure was positive. There's no way you can say, We'll do that later. It gets done now or it doesn't get done.

RC There is no tomorrow! We don't have an extra gear. Everybody's operating with their foot to the floor. Which is a tiny bit worrying. What if we need an extra gear?! But well get there.

More information on the Dublin International Film Festival can be found on their website.
The full text of this article is printed in Film Ireland 91