Donegal based production company, Vinegar Hill, have revealed details of their latest feature length documentary project ‘The Punk Angel In Our Midst’ (working title), directed by Neasa Ní Chianáin and to be shot on location in Nepal and Donegal over the coming months.
Vinegar Hill have opened up their new Northern Ireland office, Vinegar Hill Productions (NI), to develop and manage the production. The €162,000 budget for the film has been amassed through financing from RTE (25%), The Irish Film Board (30%) and The Irish Language Broadcast Fund – NI (45%).
Developed by the IFB and Vinegar Hill’s own MEDIA slate financing, ‘The Punk Angel’ is the first film from the company’s slate to be greenlit. Ní Chianáin's previous documentary 'Frank Ned & Busy Lizzie' has won critial acclaim and picked up the Best Feature Length Documentary at the 2004 Celtic Film & TV Festival.
With shooting for the latest feature already underway, producers have given the completion date of June 2006. However, RTE will broadcast a specially commissioned 25 minute version on Christmas Day this year. The film follows gay Donegal poet Cathal O’Searcaigh, who spends six months of the year in his new home Nepal, where he has adopted a Nepalese family and found love and spiritual fulfilment. This is the first project that RTE have backed with the new Irish Language fund in Northern Ireland.
Other projects on the radar for Vinegar Hill MEDIA slate; the 52 minute documentary, ‘Na Braithre Camshaft’ (supported by TG4 and match financed by Bord Scannán); ‘When I was Eleven’, a 10 part documentary series (match financed by The ILBF and RTE); the feature film ‘Stiffs’, a (match financed by The Irish Film Board) and a 4-part television drama series ‘Draft Dodgers’ (working title).
Vinegar Hill Productions are not only expanding, but also rebranding as producer and MD David Rane explains, “Since we moved to The Donegal Gaeltacht 4 years ago, we have been well supported by the Irish language funding bodies, including TG4, Foras na Gaeilge and Udaras na Gaeltachta, and so as part of our commitment to being here and using the Irish language, we are renaming the company Soilsiú Films.” The company will make the transition from Vinegar Hill Productions to Soilsiú Films over the next 6 months. Soilsiú Films will then continue to operate in County Donegal, and Vinegar Hill Productions NI will operate from a new Derry office.
Vinegar Hill/Soilsiú will be presenting the premiere of director Neasa Ní Chianáin’s 40 minute documentary, ‘Saighdiuiri Beaga Gaelacha’ (Little Soldiers of Irish), at The Stranger Than Fiction Festival in Dublin next Saturday, 1st October at 12.45pm. The 25 minute version of the film will subsequently be broadcast on TG4 on Sunday 30th October.
