The filming of ‘Táimse Im’ Chodladh’ (More)
Making Movies
EYEBALL publishing is a web orientated production company that is part of www.curator.ie. Ciarán Walsh has been involved in film making since his teens. In the 1980s it was very difficult to break into television or film production but Walsh opted for art college instead of a job as a lighting operator with RTE. He joined NCAD in 1980 and specialised in education, concentrating on the role the arts play in social activism and arts animation in communities.
He graduated in 1984 and established BASE 10, Ballymun Community Arts, a key component of which was community documentary making. A short film entitled ‘Ballymun Calling’ was made by the participant but this is now lost. In 1989 he joined the Cork Film festival and develop the first education and outreach programme of the festival. He also worked with festival director Mick Hannigan on a whole range of film projects as part of the education programme of Triskel Arts Centre.
In 1990 he set ‘Frameworks’ with Val Bogan and Eddie Noonan. Established with a grant from the Ireland funds, ‘Frameworks’ was a production company that supported documentary making by communities who would not have had access to mainstream media – and this was before the internet was rolled out. ‘Rubber NEC’s was another production company that was established to make a documentary on the Condom Sense Campaign (installing illegal condom vending machines in pubs) organised by Cork Aids Alliance.
As Education Officer in the Arts Coucil, Walsh moved out of production and into policy development and funding, managing the development of film projects in education and youth arts at a national level. As a member of the Board of General Studies of the National Council for Curriculum and Assesment (NCVA) he was responsible for the development of validation of the first series of film and video orientated post-leaving certificate course, including the criteria and procedure for assessment.
Left: Playing with cameras in 1975. Ciarán Walsh posing with a group of friends as a spoof television crew from Slógadh TV. Right: Filming an interview during Galway Arts Festival with a crew from GAF TV.
Walsh left the Arts Council in 1995 and worked as Visual Arts Director of the National Folk Theatre, incorporating ‘new media’ or digital video production into a wide ranging and experimental visual arts programme. He was involved in Kerry Film Festival and, for a wile, the break away Dingle Film Festival. In 2010 he left The National Folk theatre and set up www.curator.ie which incorporated a media company called EYEBALL publishing. Later in 2010 he joined the Television and Video Production Course ‘run’ by FÁS in Monavalley, Tralee. FÁS was, effectively, a dead end but Walsh continued to develop media based projects outside of this.
In 2012 / 2013 he produced the award-winning short ‘Táimse Im’ Chodladh,’ directed by Denis Buckley. in 2014 and 2015 he devised a six part series for TG4 and completed extensive research on social documentary photography in Ireland at the end of the 19 C. This series will be produced by Sibéal teo, a Dingle based company and broadcast in 2015. The latest project involves working with a group of musicians who have come together to put music at the centre of one of the biggest community festivals in Kerry. Inspired by the legendary “big winds” of September the musicians have organised the “Pattern Thrasher” traditional music festival which takes place on the annual pattern day in Ballyheigue.
PROJECTS
FOR MORE VIDEOS: Ciarán Walsh / www.curator.ie
