I come from a family of actors and grew up in London, then Dublin. Returning to London in the 1970s, Studied Fine Art at Goldsmiths when I worked with word and image through the medium of Super-8 film and tape/slide installation.
Thereafter I immersed myself in writing and screenplay development, with a particular focus on workshops for women writers, supported by BBC Television, Channel 4 Drama and the National Film & Television School (UK). I piloted ‘Script Craft’, a scheme for screenwriters in the Smaller Countries of Europe, as part of the EU’s Creative Media Programme.
Returning to filmmaking, I directed ‘The Cake’ (10 mins, 35mm, 1995) written by Pat Griffin for BBC Television’s Northern Lights Award Scheme (BBC2/Northern Ireland Film Commission).
By the turn of the millennium I found Ireland unrecognisable from the country I had left some 30 years before. A community of Brazilian meat workers in Cork City set in motion the visual poems that can be viewed on this website. Some of these stories – filmed in Brazil and Ireland – bear the clear markings of brutality meted out by Tiger Ireland.
It has been a process of great collaboration and meetings with special people along the way. My thanks to all who helped me make this happen.
The making of these short films has informed my PhD with practice (Ulster University, 2016).