Mary Cullen & Brian Duggan

Ireland

In November 2003 Mark Cullen and Brian Duggan set up a new mixed group in Donomore / Killinarden, in west Tallaght, Dublin. This project, orientated towards the youth of the area, made several original short digital films over nine months. The group, who were all 16 years old, had no experience in film-making. The films are the result of weekly workshops, discussions and arguments, ideas, notes, dreams and throw-away comments. During the process the new group visited some of Dublin’s most prestigious galleries – the Hugh Lane Gallery, the Irish Museum of Modern Art, the RHA and the Douglas Hyde – for the first time. They found the work there interesting, but in general the response to the video work on display was ‘not impressed, we could do better’. The project is called Short Shorts. During this project eight short digital films were made:

Killinarden Killers – A horror genre tale of break-and-entry into the local school. LFS (Local Fitness Survival) – This film takes stereotypes associated with housing sprawl and turns them on their head in a comic satire involving a host of the community. The Gulf War II – Using news footage and local interviews, this documentary investigates our responses to the war. Still Time – This is a series of portraits and landscape tableaus animated and put to a score, to give a sense of a day in the life of any suburban estate. Dinner in a Glass – An urban take with the gender issues surrounding food and eating. The Spike – A cautionary tale of young social interaction, that gets out of control with sinister implications. Soft Scrutiny – An ode from the individual, in the social spaghetti junction that is the modern shopping centre. Devil Car – The goings-on in the hills of Killinarden.

(Text: imagine limerick catalogue, 2004)