The ninth Capital Irish Film Festival (5 – 8 February 2015) brought some of the best of contemporary Irish film to Washington D.C. This year’s highlights included a screening of Frank, Niall Heery’s Gold, Sinéad O’Brien’s fascinating documentary Blood Fruit and Keith Farrell‘s A Terrible Beauty.
Adam McPartlan spoke to Sinéad about Blood Fruit, which tells the story of the Dunnes Stores strikers in 1980’s Dublin. Mary Manning, a 21-year-old Dunnes Stores checkout girl, refused to sell two Outspan grapefruits under direction from her union in support of the anti-apartheid struggle. She and ten other supporters were suspended and a strike ensued. The 11 knew little about apartheid and assumed they’d be back to work before long but the arrival on the picket line of activist Nimrod Sejake changed everything, setting the strikers on a path they could never have expected.
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About Sinead O’Brien
Sinead is an award-winning producer, director, writer and non-fiction author with a career that has spanned over twenty-five years. During this time, she has collaborated with Screen Ireland, BBC, Sky Arts, Northern Ireland Screen, Channel 4, Virgin, RTE, TG4, the BAI and NRK on a range of documentary films. Sinead recently produced the documentary ‘Legends in my Backyard’ for RTE and is currently in production on drama documentary film ‘The Two Killings of George Nkencho’ as writer, director and executive producer. She has authored two critically acclaimed non-fiction books. ‘Left for Dead’ with Nick Ward and ‘Striking Back’ with Mary Manning – the latter is currently being adapted for the stage by renowned US playwright Matt Spangler (The Kite Runner). Since early 2024 Sinead has been focusing on writing and directing drama. This includes directing the DLR First Frames short film ‘The Invitation’, being a finalist for RTE Storyland 2024, a finalist for The Stowe Connemara Lab 2024 and completing an MA in Screenwriting for Film and TV at IADT in 2024. Sinead has attended MIDPOINT TV Writers Room under the mentorship of Gabor Krigler and Ben Morris. More recently she has been shadow directing Hannah Quinn on Sanctuary: A Witches Tale for AMC+. Sinead has just completed her second short film, ‘Little B*tch, which is funded by Ardan and RTE. Sinead is a part-time lecturer at IADT on the MA for Screen & TV. She has also lectured at UCD and Edinburgh Napier University. She has been a Mentor for the film sector at Minding Creative Minds since 2022. www.sineadobrienfilm.com
Capital Irish Film Festival
Solas Nua’s annual Capital Irish Film Festival in Washington, D.C., presents one of the largest programmes of Irish cinema in North America, showcasing the latest Irish dramatic and documentary features, shorts, art films and animation releases by Irish and Ireland-based filmmakers.
The festival provides a US platform that amplifies the work of independent filmmakers working in Ireland and beyond, and celebrates the strength of Ireland’s contemporary cinematic culture. The programme highlights the country’s rich cultural heritage while fostering an inclusive and diverse community of Irish filmmakers. Capital Irish Film Festival champions emerging voices on Irish screens, showcases the exceptional talent and craft within Irish filmmaking, and reflects the robust and vibrant screen industry that has grown in Ireland in recent years.
The festival also presents the annual Norman Houston Short Film Award, dedicated to the memory of Norman Houston, the former Director of the Northern Ireland Bureau (NIB) in the United States. The award honours the best new short film created by a filmmaker based in or from Northern Ireland, made within the previous two years. The 2026 Norman Houston Short Film Award goes to writer-director Oliver McGoldrick for his film Three Keenings.
Read more on SolasNua.org, follow Capital Irish Film Festival on FilmFreeway here.
