Thomas Hefferon’s ‘Confession’ and ‘The Heist’, and Steph Green’s ‘New Boy’ are currently showing as part of new online programmes from the Tribeca Film Festival - and Declan Cassidy is currently in post-production with his short film, ‘Wedding Planners’.
Irish Shorts in Special Online Tribeca Programmes
Three Irish shorts are currently enjoying online preview screenings on the Tribeca website in the run up to the festival later this month. The Tribeca Film Festival is marking its 10 year anniversary with a retrospective programme of shorts which each represent a year of the festival. Two of these are Irish projects; 2009 is represented by Thomas Hefferon’s ‘Confession’ which looks at an Irish boy who seeks solace from a priest during his confession whilst 2008 is represented by Steph Green’s Oscar nominated short, ‘New Boy’ about a new arrival in the classroom.
A second short film from Thomas Hefferon’s, ‘The Heist’ is enjoying an online preview screening slot on the website. ‘The Heist’ centres on three wannabe bank-robbers go through their plan one last time before the heist, but things are quickly complicated when they can't even agree on their code-names. ‘The Heist’ is available to watch until next Tuesday, April 19th.
In total, Thomas Hefferon has three shorts showing as part of the Tribeca programme. As well as the two mentioned above, his recent film ‘Switch’ is screening at the festival. The short takes place two years after a traumatic car accident that leaves a girl in a vegetative state, where the man responsible attempts to atone.
The other Irish shorts chosen to screen at the festival include two IFTA nominated projects; ‘Pentecost’ from Eimear O’Kane for EMU productions which tells the story of a young altar boy who is forced to serve at an important mass and has to make a difficult choice; and ‘Noreen’ from Domhnall Gleeson. The directorial debut from Gleeson is a comedic look at a pair of two idiotic Irish policemen and their quest to get out of a sticky situation of their own doing.
To view the above shorts alongside other select international projects visit www.tribecafilm.com/tribecaonline/streaming-room/
Wedding Planners
Written, directed and shot by Declan Cassidy (Whatever Turns You On) on Panasonic AF101, ‘Wedding Planners’ is currently in post production. The bus-journey based comedy was shot on location near Slane, County Meath on April 9th and 10th where unexpected glorious weather threatened to throw a spanner in the works. “The majority of scenes took place on a coach and we’d identified a quiet stretch of road where we could turn the coach to run up and down for each take,” Declan tells us. ”When we arrived, though, the good weather had brought cars out in their droves so manoeuvring the bus became a nightmare!”
‘Wedding Planners’ was originally submitted for funding under the Irish Film Board’s Short Shorts scheme but was turned down. As such a budget of €2,500 was raised through private funding by Italian producer Tony Sharpe. “We advertised the acting roles at the same rate as the Film Board’s Short Short scheme and had over 300 applications for five roles,” Cassidy tells us.
The short stars London based Irish actress Gemma Leah Devereaux and Cork actor, Emmet O’Riabhaigh alongside Sharon Coade, Diana O’Connor and Janet Little. ‘Wedding Planners’ is now going in to post production in Timesnap where Declan will edit it after which time it is to be submitted to various film festivals in Ireland and abroad.
