Irish Film London is kicking off their St. Brigid’s Day Festival celebrations with a selection of short films originated by Irish women, or with Irish female focused themes at their core.
One of the short films on show will be Sadhbh, the screenwriting debut of Love Island host Laura Whitmore. Laura was honoured with the Ros Hubbard Award for Acting for her part in Sadhbh. She told The Irish World at the time: “I’m so thankful at the moment because it’s been such a special night and it’s been great to celebrate here at the embassy.
She told us about the film: “It’s about a young mother who’s just struggling to deal with how to juggle everything when you’re looking at Instagram and everyone’s doing things perfectly. There’s a dark secret behind it all. She’s just trying to be the best that she can be and feels constantly judged and the only way she can deal with is how you’ll see in the film.”
Asked if she will continue screenwriting, Laura says: “It’s definitely something I’m passionate about. I think wherever there’s passion, you’re always going to continue down that route.”
Among the other films in the programme are The Girl At the End of the Garden, a slapstick comedy about an unhappy young girl whose life is turned upside-down when she finds a mysterious runaway with psychic powers in her back garden. The animated The Bird and the Whale is a visually stunning tale of two different trying to survive at sea.
Starry Night sees a woman struggling with the decision to either abandon her sisters, and pursue her dream in London or to sacrifice herself for them.
Jill and Giles is a short documentary based on an English couple who have spent 20 years living and working on a boat with half of that time being spent on the River Shannon in Ireland.
Who’s the Daddy? is a character driven comedy-drama about the ups and down of motherhood.
Match is the story of two strangers who match online only for what they both expected to be casual to be quickly turned on its head.
Festival founder and director Kelly O’ Connor told The Irish World: “The sheer volume of Irish films being made by women today is so exciting. Our She Made This programme gives just a taste. So keep an eye out for more to come very soon.”
The She Made This shorts programme can be seen at Regent Street Cinema at 5pm on Sunday 2 February.
After the shorts, Irish Film London will continue to mark St. Brigid’s celebrations with a screening of A Girl From Mogadishu which is followed by a Q and A session with writer and director Mary McGuckian, Bonnie Greer OBE and Leyle Hussein OBE. We featured A Girl From Mogadishu here.
