Oscar winner supports local film makers

Oscar winner supports local film makers

7 May 2014

DOWNPATRICK’S Eclipse Cinema was the venue for the recent screening of nine short films produced by local youth and community groups.

They were made as part of the Down Community Arts Film 300 project which invited local people to submit their ideas which were then made into films.

They included Sleep Tight which is about a woman who suffers from sleep deprivation who reads a newspaper article about a serial killer on the loose. As she begins to go to bed, events take a sinister turn when the killer is indeed in the woman’s house, but is he actually physically there or just in her imagination?

Philip Kelly, from Down Community Arts, said several hundred people attended the recent screenings at the Eclipse Cinema with everyone involved in the project praised by Oscar winning director, Terry George, who sent a special video message from New York.

“We were delighted Terry took time to praise everyone involved in the Film 300 project. All the films were shot locally and it’s clear that we have a lot of talented screenwriters and film makers in the area,” he said.

Philip revealed that anyone who wants to view the nine films can do so shortly by logging on to the Down Community Arts Facebook page.

“Film 300 proved a very popular project and given its success and the interest it generated, we are planning to run the programme again next year,” he said.

“Down Community Arts is very impressed with the calibre of all the short films and there are clearly a lot of talented people out there.”

The series of film include Sleep Tight by Rebecca Morrison, Rodney by The Men’s Shed Project, Downpatrick; Well, Max by Niall McCabe and Eoin O’Toole, Time and Effect by Matthew McComish, Snow by Jack Murphy and Jack Higgins, The Wrong Combination by the SEELB Lecale Area Project, Klepto by Shane Walsh and Niall McCrickard, Stay Strong  by Dominic O’Neill and Oasis by Nick Mack.