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Bringing It All Back Home
04 Nov 2014 : Paul Byrne
For his follow-up to the acclaimed ‘Ballymun Lullaby’, filmmaker Frank Berry stayed close to home, ‘I Used To Live Here’ being once again made within his community. He talks to Paul Byrne.

Most filmmakers strive to shine a light into those shaded parts of the world, and ourselves, that we may not otherwise notice, and it’s something that Irish filmmaker Frank Berry has been doing right from the start.

Early TV dramas ‘This Time Round’ and ‘Teenage Cics’ were followed by the acclaimed documentary ‘Ballymun Lullaby’, Berry exploring and reflecting the world around him in north Dublin. And for his latest outing, the fiction feature ‘I Used To Live Here’, Berry takes on the growing problem of teenage suicide, having been inspired by a newspaper article on the subject written by Dr. Tony Bates, the founding director of Headstrong, the Dublin-based National Centre for Youth Mental Health. Berry and Bates were soon working together on I Used To Live Here...

PAUL BYRNE: Taking the step after your well-received documentary ‘Ballymun Lullaby’ into your first big-screen fiction feature - one giant leap or a natural next step?

FRANK BERRY: After ‘Ballymun Lullaby’, I wanted to continue the process of working from within a community, so yes, this connection made it feel like a natural step. ‘I Used to Live Here’ started when I read an article in The Irish Times about suicide clusters among teenagers. I first thought of making a documentary on the subject, but then felt that with a fictional drama we could discuss the issue more safely, without exposing the audience to any real tragedy. So it wasn’t really a conscious step into drama, but more a decision made based on the subject matter.

This is actually your second fiction feature, after 2001’s TV outing ‘This Time Round’ - a different experience, eh, this time round?

Ha - yes, very different experiences. I’ve had two experiences with TV drama; I made ‘This Time Round’ pretty soon after college, which was on RTÉ 1, and the second was an Irish language drama series called ‘Teenage Cics’, which was on TG4 and BBC Northern Ireland. In the following years I focused more on making community videos for different initiatives and charities, which was work I found very satisfying. It was in this type of work that I found my feet as a filmmaker I think, and it eventually led to ‘Ballymun Lullaby’.

True-life rarely follows the standard Hollywood arc, but when it comes to fiction, that arc is what most filmmakers aim for. Liberating or debilitating, not having a real-life blueprint to work from?

Well, the story in the film is fictional, but of course suicide clusters are real and that was my starting point. I wanted to explore how when the suicide of a young person occurs in a community, it is common for that person to be talked about almost like a celebrity among young people, and how suicide can then seem like an appealing prospect to another young person in crisis. So I carefully constructed a story around this idea with advice from Headstrong, and the participants were able to bring colour, personal feelings and reality to their characters and to the story.

Given that ‘Ballymun Lullaby’ got such a positive reception, you would have thought getting finance for ‘I Used To Live Here’ would be easy - nonetheless, you just got completion funding from the Irish Film Board. Angry about that?

No, but of course it isn’t easy getting rejected for funding, and it was frustrating at the time. I had made ‘Ballymun Lullaby’ for no money, and vowed that I wouldn’t do that again. But the more my relationship with the community and my wonderful crew developed the harder it was for us to turn our backs on the project. So we adapted, and shot on weekends. As soon as we showed the Film Board a rough cut, they supported us and have been very encouraging and helpful in completing the film.

Teen suicide is a difficult subject - can you tell us a little more about the inspiration to take it on?

I read the article in The Irish Times, called ‘We Must Give Young People a Reason to Live’ by Dr. Tony Bates, and subsequently the second part of that article which was called ‘Breaking the Ripple Effects of Suicide’. I felt a film could be a useful addition to the discussion, and could create another space for people to talk about this subject.

Did Headstrong approach you, or did you approach them?

Dr. Tony Bates, who wrote the article, is the founding director of Headstrong, and I contacted him to discuss it. He became a great advisor and mentor during my research. It was through my research with Headstrong that I met the youth workers in Killinarden.

Working with a non-professional cast can be both a blessing and a curse - how was it for you?

It was a blessing. I spent the first three months sitting in the youth space of the Killinarden Community Centre on one or two evenings a week, getting to know the young people and the adults. For a while some of the young people thought I was a trainee youth worker. During the October mid-term break I did a camera workshop with them which was the first time any of them saw me with a camera. Six months in we started doing acting workshops with scenes from the film every Wednesday afternoon. By the time we started filming in August, we all knew each other very well, which contributed to naturalistic performances I think. I think we have discovered some great talent in Killinarden, mostly from under the one roof.

Would you hope ‘I Used To Live Here’ will have a real effect? Important to you that this is more than just an 80 minute distraction?

Yes, for all of us involved, we would love for young people and adults to watch the film and to discuss it. As many of us are all too aware, suicide is a huge problem in Ireland. The film aims to show how when a suicide takes place in a community, the risk of a suicidal thought occurring among people exposed to that tragedy becomes greater. This is particularly true of young people, many of whom are unable to fully comprehend the finality of the act. I think discussion and understanding is a way of dealing with the power of that exposure.

Won Best First Feature Audience Award at the Galway Film Fleadh - big boost to the ego, and a big jolt to the box-office potential, right? Irish films need any help they can get, especially when it comes to seducing Irish audiences.

The Galway Film Fleadh was the film’s premiere screening and it was great for the film to receive an award so early on. It’s a good start for the film and yes, I think everything helps get the film out there and talked about.

You certainly set out to have an effect with ‘Ballymun Lullaby’, as you followed music teacher Ron Cooney and his mission to change people’s perception of the sometimes-troubled north Dublin estate through the power of music - how much of an effect did your documentary have?

I’m realistic about the effect a documentary like ‘Ballymun Lullaby’ can have. On an immediate level Darren Scully and Tara O’Brien both have degrees now, and Wayne Beatty was a finalist on the TV show The Voice. The Ballymun Lullaby Choir opened the One Young World Summit a couple of weeks ago, and I think the music has reached a cultural place now where it is just going to keep on going in different ways. If the film had anything to do with helping give the music exposure, I’m very happy about that. At a community level I think it’s fair to say that a lot of people in Ballymun feel that the film showed a side of the community that is not frequently seen on screen, and are happy that the film was made.

You made millions from the tie-in CD, right?

Yes, I’m in the Bahamas right now. The CD wasn’t really a tie-in, the film was made about the making of the CD. The profits from the CD go to the music programme, but unfortunately funding is still a serious struggle for Ron and his fellow teachers.

Ten years between ‘This Time Round’ and your next feature, ‘Ballymun Lullaby’ - slow worker, or hard to find the budget?

Probably both. In addition to ‘Teenage Cics’ and the community work I was doing in those years, I also teach Film Production two days a week in Colaiste Dhulaigh College of Further Education in Coolock, which is a job I’ve been doing since I was 24, and one I’m really passionate about. It has always kept me going.

Where to from here? Feel the need to go full commercial, or are you too Ken Loach for that?

It’s early days but I’m developing a feature film with the Irish Film Board, which will have similar techniques to those I used for ‘I Used to Live Here’, and this time will involve a mix of established actors and non-professionals - and this time with a budget!

‘I Used To Live Here’ has an IFTA screening tonight, November 4th 2014, at the Light House Cinema, Dublin.





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