We spoke with director Ciaran Cassidy about the making of his poignant feature documentary, Housewife of the Year, which releases in Irish cinemas this Friday, November 22nd.
Housewife of the Year tells the story of Ireland’s treatment of women through the prism of a unique, surreal, live televised competition, that must be seen to be believed, where a generation of Irish women competed in front of a live audience for the title of ‘Housewife of the Year’. The former contestants share their direct experiences of marriage bars, lack of contraception, Magdalene laundries, financial vulnerability, boredom and shame and of course, of being contestants in the competition. It’s the story of a resilient generation of women and how they changed a country.
The documentary is directed by award winning filmmaker Ciaran Cassidy, whose films have premiered at coveted festivals such as Sundance, Telluride, IDFA, SXSW, and Sheffield DocFest, with Housewife of the Year marking his second theatrical documentary following his debut feature, Jihad Jane.
Through the testimonies of past contestants, Cassidy's documentary looks back on a beige-coloured chapter in Irish TV history and explores the shocking gap between what the audience saw on television and the reality of life for women in Ireland at the time.
Approach
When Cassidy first approached producer Maria Hogan about this concept, the pair established that there were a couple of roadblocks that needed to be passed before they could feel confident that there was potential for a full feature documentary. “We always want to do a deeper social history of Ireland through the personal accounts of the women involved, but if they didn't really want to talk, then the documentary would have been very superficial,” Cassidy tells IFTN.
“I think the very first woman we talked to in the film, when we're doing the teaser, was Bernie; she lives down in Wexford and I went down to her. When we arrived, she told us ‘I am going to tell you something that I haven't told anybody before,’” he continues. “She told us that when she competed, she didn't want to win, because she was worried that people would find out that she had a child outside of marriage.”
“At that point we had only really interviewed maybe two, three women, but after the interviews we felt that the concept was there and people were willing to talk. That’s when we decided: Okay, this really works.”
Footage
Although the surreal television competition was a staple of Irish television between 1968 and 1995, the original archive of many of the years was not readily available in the RTÉ archives. This was another roadblock that Cassidy and Hogan needed to overcome, as footage of the event was crucial to giving audiences a sense of the uniquely bizarre spectacle that was the Housewife of the Year. “At the start, we were worried that there might not be enough footage, which would mean you wouldn't really get an idea of the show,” Cassidy tells IFTN.
When reaching out to potential contributors about their experience, the production team also ask about whether they still had any footage from the event. The contestants themselves proved to be the most reliable source of archive with many still holding recordings of the broadcast itself. “Most of them had VHS’; you know, it was a big deal when you're on TV... So, they taped it!” Cassidy recounts. “There were some houses, where they had a couple of copies of different years.”
“One woman told us that she had tapped a year before, then entered and won it, then she recorded the next year too!” Cassidy explains. “So that's how we ended up with three copies in the middle of the 1980s. So, as we were talking to people, we were trying to figure out who we thought were suitable for the documentary, but we were also picking up footage as well.”
Contributors
The contest was packed with an array of incredibly captivating women who never lost any of their confidence or charm, something Cassidy says was clear from the outset when he began meeting with and interviewing former contestants. “You're always working with complimentary subjects and just seeing how they are with cameras, and would they be intimidated? Are they honest? How do they project?” he explains.
“The thing is, because these women had stepped up to do live TV in the 1980s when there's only two channels here, that was quite a big deal. So, I don’t think they were in any way intimidated by talking to us!” he laughs. “So, they were brilliant subjects to talk with.”
“I think the other thing that we were reflecting on afterwards, was that they were all so honest. I've done so many docs, where you go into interviews and people are cagey, this kind of inner screen begins to happen, but with this project, the women were very trusting and just spoke their mind.”
Audience
The film was selected to make its world premiere at CPH:DOX earlier this year, followed by a special Irish premiere at the Galway Film Fleadh, where almost all of the cast were in attendance to receive the Best Irish Feature Documentary Award. Speaking about the experience so fair, Cassidy tells IFTN: “The screenings have been great. I think the audience really got it (at CPH: DOX), and they understood that we were respectful of everyone involved, but then it was amazing to come back to Galway, where we had everybody (involved in the film) in the room and just how emotional that screening of it was as well.”
“It is a film we designed with a live audience in mind: for people to take it in, you know. We worked with Cara Homes, who editing, and we were always conscious of playing it to a live audiences,” he adds.
The documentary has since screened at the Santa Fe International Film Festival, the Kerry International Film Festival, and the Newport Beach Film Festival, where it picked up the Best Documentary Jury Award. Juno Films have also acquired the worldwide rights to the documentary, which is produced by Maria Horgan for Little Wing Films with funding from Fís Éireann/Screen Ireland, RTÉ, SVT, DR, and NRK.
Wildcard Distribution releases Housewife of the Year in Irish cinemas nationwide on November 22nd.
