Making Irelands brings together two artists working with moving image, Marianne Keating and Yvonne McGuinness.

Marianne Keating presents her film installation Cad Leis a Bhfuilimíd Ailínithe/To What Do We Align, 2025, in cinematic form. While artist Yvonne McGuinness’ What’s Left Us Then, 2023, will be shown in Dublin for the first time.

An in-conversation and screening event with the artists takes place on Thursday 30 July at 6pm as part of Dublin by Dusk – for more information and to book please click here.

About the films

Marianne Keating, Cad Leis a Bhfuilimíd Ailínithe / To What Do We Align, 2025 (20 minutes)
Cad Leis a Bhfuilimíd Ailínithe / To What Do We Align situates Ireland within the broader anti-colonial movement. The film traces the country’s political and economic developments throughout mid-20th century, from the culturally insular, economically protectionist society of the 1940s and 50s to a lunge toward foreign direct investment in the 1960s. Though Ireland’s liberation from the British Empire inspired decolonial struggles across the globe, To What Do We Align asks how Ireland has distanced itself from the ‘colonial other’. Through a collage of archival footage leading up to the historical founding of the Non Alignment Movement, Keating’s work explores how Ireland has oriented itself towards the interests of global superpowers, rather than supporting true decolonisation for all.

Yvonne McGuinness, What’s Left Us Then, 2023 (27 minutes)
What’s Left Us Then examines marks left by concrete on the landscape of rural Ireland, where in the artists’ words, ‘the meeting of the bucolic with the brutalist is often contested’. Lending a poetic quality to the investigative form, the film surveys abandoned buildings and sites of buildings-in-progress, considering the cultural, historical, and emotional weight of concrete forms. Through encounters with architects and quarry owners, McGuinness offers a meditation on decay, endurance, and the contradictions of modern shelter. Commissioned as part of the Engaging with Architecture programme funded by the Arts Council of Ireland, the film premiered at the Galway International Arts Festival 2024.

About the artists

Marianne Keating is an Irish artist and researcher, exploring Irish history, particularly the complex legacies of colonialism, migration and empire and the often-overlooked experiences of the Irish diaspora, especially in Jamaica. Through visual, material, and oral traces, and supported by intensive on-site investigation, she reconstructs and reimagines these fragmented histories. She seeks to reinsert previously muted or silenced voices into the archive, giving them renewed presence through her practice-based work as an artist researcher. Her work sits within ongoing discourses on post/neocolonial identity and diaspora.

Yvonne McGuinness is a filmmaker and visual artist whose work critically examines place, belonging, and social dynamics within environments. Through performance-based films and installations, often created in collaboration with communities, she explores collective histories and identities. McGuinness’s interdisciplinary practice embraces chance and layered narratives, blurring the boundaries between documentary and performance.

IMMA’s Fruition café van will be open in the courtyard for refreshments and treats until 6pm!

This set of three films – Surge (2022) by Farah Al Qasimi, [ELEKTROİZOLASYON] (2021-2024) by Emre Hüner, and Wreckage (2024) by Jane Jin Kaisen – is screening as part of Living Canvas at IMMA to coincide with the exhibition Fisherwoman, Fisherwoman in IMMA’s House Galleries. The thematics featured across the film works reflect and extend those within the exhibition, layering intersections of ecological and humanitarian concerns. The exhibition Fisherwoman, Fisherwoman brings together works by Camille Souter and Alberta Whittle, and calls attention to urgent issues of extraction and land use, geology and climate, industrialisation and labour, and movement and migration. Fisherwoman, Fisherwoman runs at IMMA until 13 September 2026. 

Films in order of appearance:  

Farah Al Qasimi, Surge, (2022) 8:39 minutes 

Emre Hüner, [ELEKTROİZOLASYON], (2021-2024) 88 minutes 

Jane Jin Kaisen, Wreckage, (2024) 12 minutes   

About the films: 

Farah Al Qasimi 
Surge, 2022
Video, 8:39 minutes, colour, sound
A short film about the effects of desalination on sea creatures in the United Arab Emirates. 

Emre Hüner
[ELEKTROİZOLASYON], 2021–2024
UHD, B&W, Colour, 88 minutes 
Shaped around a semi-fictional script and developed through aesthetic gestures such as recording, documenting, citing, moulding, and duplicating, [ELEKTROİZOLASYON] reflects a performative production process grounded in improvisation. Its sequences—referencing the closed-world architectures of the factory, laboratory, film set, and settlement—evoke a sterile, science-fictional estrangement while carrying subterranean murmurs, familiar archetypes, and residual bodies drawn from the urban texture surrounding the narrative. 

The film explores the thresholds between fiction, performance documentation, and documentary. In various sequences, actors assume multiple characters from a script, at times turning to improvisation and at others interacting with real situations and people. These movements traverse locations such as washing-machine factories, shipyards, scrapyards, rooftops, mannequin workshops, medical electronics and car repair shops, a natural history collection, and the Byzantine ruins around Istanbul. 

The script interweaves personal anecdotes drawn from archival photographs found in an engine repair workshop, fictional accounts of night walks, prompts for performative acts, lists of electrical and electronic terminology, and both real and invented news headlines. 

Through this layering, fragments seep in from the city’s improvisation based, makeshift industrial history. 

 Animated elements—including a deep-diving helmet, an artificial heart, concrete barrier blocks, and robotic fingers—are introduced into the film, connecting to a larger machinic infrastructure. Emerging through repetitions and shifts in material, movement, and scale, these forms suggest an infrastructural techno-subjectivity that generates fictional 

instances while attempting to bind together the artificial and the biological, the mechanical and the organic. 

Cast: Esme Madra, Cem Özeren, Hatice Bozdağlı, Vahram Agakay. 

Courtesy Sylvia Kouvali, Piraeus/London and the artist. 

Jane Jin Kaisen
Wreckage, 2024
Single channel film. 4K. Color / Stereo sound. 12 minutes   

Wreckage, by Jane Jin Kaisen, is about war, its memory, and its afterlife. Underwater footage shows the ravenous sea superimposed with a US propaganda film. Filmed in Jeju in October 1945, it depicts soldiers loading massive piles of weapons and artillery left by the defeated Japanese Army onto a large ship and dumping them into the sea. A few years later, the Jeju 4.3 Massacre unravelled under the authority of the United States Army Military Government in Korea. During the massacre, unknown numbers of civilians were killed and thrown into the sea, while others tried to flee the island by boat. Such a fate is recalled in a lament by late shaman Koh Sunahn, a survivor of the massacre whose shamanic practice Kaisen documented for a decade until her passing. The lament takes the form of a chant where Koh Sunahn interchangeably assumes the voice of a mother and her deceased son, whose body was never recovered from the sea.   

Wreckage evokes several archival, temporal, and sensorial registers. The imperial archive shows war’s devastation to human life and the natural environment whereas the shamanic lament foregrounds enduring loss in the absence of a proper burial. Meanwhile, the sea is approached as an archive of traumatic memories. As the film unfolds an underwater offering is performed and the regenerative force of the sea is portrayed. 

About the Artists: 

Farah Al Qasimi makes photographs, films and music. Often working with large-scale vinyl imagery and a multiplicity of photographic prints and screens, she is interested in the internet and its hierarchies of information and emotion. Al Qasimi loves the complexity of storytelling and value-building in children’s cartoons, and many of her video works include primary narrators who are anthropomorphised. Through a highly collaborative practice, she has worked with hand-sewn puppets, falcons, African Land Snails, exorcists, and most recently, a Jack Sparrow impersonator. Her work is in the collections of MoMA New York, Tate Modern, Guggenheim New York and Abu Dhabi, and she has participated in residencies at the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in Maine, Delfina Foundation in London, and the Chinati Foundation in Marfa. 

Through drawing, video, sculpture, and installation, Emre Hüner’s practice focuses on constructed narratives and eclectic assemblages that explore the subjects of utopia, archaeology, and ideas of progress and futurity through the re-imagination of architectural entities and speculations on the materiality of organic and artificial forms. 

The artist’s recent solo exhibitions include Substrata Styrene and Iconoclastic Nuclear Plastic (Sylvia Kouvali, Piraeus, 2023–2024), [ELEKTROİZOLASYON]: Unknown Parameter Extro-Record (Arter, Istanbul, 2021), Neochronophobiq(Protocinema, New York and STUK, Leuven, 2017), and Floating Cabin Rider Capsule Reactor Cycle (CCA Kitakyushu, 2015). Hüner’s work has also been included in various group exhibitions, including Breaking Through a Dam (SALT, Istanbul, 2026), the 16th Sharjah Biennial, to carry (Sharjah, UAE, 2025), the 9th Asian Art Biennial, How to Hold Your Breath (Taichung, 2025), Further Thoughts on Earthy Materials (Kunsthaus Hamburg, 2018), Planet 9 (Kunsthalle Darmstadt, 2017), the 14th Istanbul Biennial (2015), and Manifesta 9 (2012). 

Hüner studied at the Brera Academy of Fine Arts in Milan and participated in artist residencies at Artpace San Antonio (Texas, 2019), AGA LAB (Amsterdam, 2019), Frans Masereel Centrum (Kasterlee, 2017), ISCP (New York, 2014), Princeton University (2010), the Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten (Amsterdam, 2010), apexart (New York, 2009), and Platform Garanti Contemporary Art Center (Istanbul, 2009). Emre Hüner’s work is included in the collections of Arter, Tate, Centre Pompidou, Princeton University Art Museum, and the Van Abbemuseum. The artist lives and works in Istanbul and Amsterdam. 

 Jane Jin Kaisen (born 1980 in South Korea, living in Denmark) is known for her visually striking, multilayered, performative, poetic, and multi-voiced feminist works through which past and present are brought into relation. Engaging topics such as memory, migration, borders, and translation, she activates the field where lived experience and embodied knowledge intersect with larger political histories.    

Recently, Kaisen has participated in biennials such as 13th Seoul MediaCity Biennale 2025; 13th Berlin Biennale for Contemporary Art 2025; 36th Ljubljana Biennale of Graphic Arts 2025; and Hawaii Triennial 2025. Other exhibitions and screenings include Korea Artist Prize 2024 at National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art Korea; and Dislocation Blues: Jane Jin Kaisen at Tate Modern in 2023. Kaisen represented Korea at the 58th Venice Biennale with the film installation Community of Parting (2019).  

The recipient of several awards and recognition grants, these include Ole Haslund’s Artist Grant (2025); Beckett-Prize (2023); New Carlsberg Foundation Artist Grant (2023); a 3-year work grant from the Danish Arts Foundation (2022); “Exhibition of the Year 2020” by AICA – International Association of Art Critics, Denmark for her exhibition Community of Parting at Kunsthal Charlottenborg; and Montana ENTERPRIZE (2011) at Kunsthallen Brandts.  

Since 2020, Kaisen has been professor at the School of Media Arts, The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts. She holds a PhD in Artistic Research from University of Copenhagen and an MFA from University of California Los Angeles, and participated in the Whitney Independent Study Program 2007-08.   

Presenting a selection of work by Irish and international artists from Living Canvas at Wilton Park: the programme includes poetry on film with literary lunchtimes, weekend animation mornings for families, and films by David OReilly, Alan Gilsenan, Kevin McGloughlin, Simon Reilly, John Beattie, Sofia Crespo and Feileacan McCormick.

When first installed on the banks of the Grand Canal in 2021, Living Canvas was the largest outdoor digital screen to be solely dedicated to the arts in Europe, and only the second of its kind in the world. Over ten successful seasons, Living Canvas showed the work of more than 100 artists and writers, including new commissions of Irish and international work. See more information here.

Solely supported by IPUT Real Estate, Living Canvas quickly become part of the city’s arts infrastructure. Living Canvas is now at home on the front lawn at the Irish Museum of Modern Art in a partnership between IPUT and IMMA. The Park Series has been curated by Gemma Tipton.

About the Films

David OReilly
Eye of the Dream
Running time: 32 minutes, 56 seconds
Eye of the Dream (2018) is an immersive audiovisual installation that aims to present the process of life from the Big Bang to the modern world, through the act of dancing. Everything becomes part of this choreographed dance, spontaneously arranged, though set in a particular paradigm: interfacing with everything, surrounded, compromising, expanding and changing through individual actions and interactions. Just like life.

Kilkenny born, David OReilly is a multidisciplinary artist based in Los Angeles. His work spans animation, video games, and interactive art. Beginning his career as an animator with Cartoon Saloon, he went on to make numerous short films that inspired a wave of lo-fi digital aesthetics. In collaboration with Spike Jonze, he created the holographic video games in the film Her. He then went on to develop interactive nature simulations such as Mountain and the universe-scale Everything. His pioneering AR works have received over 3 billion views across social media.

Alan Gilsenan
Ghosts of Baggotonia
Running time: 85 minutes
Ghosts of Baggotonia (2023) explores the literary and other ghosts of the bohemian quarter bordering Dublin’s Baggot Street during the mid-20th century.  Baggotonia was both a permeable geographic area and a cultural movement, populated by writers, artists and other intellectuals living an anarchic life at odds with the overarching drabness and conservative mores of the time. Inspired by a rare collection of photographs from artist Nevill Johnson, the film is shot in stark Leica monotone and draws upon writings from the period, including by Patrick Kavanagh, Elizabeth Bowen, Samuel Beckett, Blanaid Salkeld, John Montague, Eavan Boland, Paul Durcan, Ethna McCarthy, Thomas Kinsella amongst many others. Sound tracked by Brian Crosby, the film is Narrated by Alan Gilsenan and Camille O’Sullivan.

Alan Gilsenan is a multi-award-winning Irish writer and film-maker. His diverse body of film-work extends across documentary, feature films and experimental work. He is also a Theatre Director, including at the Abbey, Smock Alley and London’s Barbican Centre. His adaptation of John Banville’s The Book of Evidence was staged at The Gate Theatre. In 1986, he founded Yellow Asylum Films with Martin Mahon,

Repetition
Kevin McGloughlin
Running Time: 5 minutes 56 seconds
Repetition (2019) is an attempt to convey the importance of our endless endeavours toward human development and growth, amidst a chaotic and disorienting landscape. The struggle for a fruitful future is challenging, with the distractions of everyday life set alongside its ever-growing technological ‘advancements’. The hope is for humanity to strive through all of this to live, and to continue in a meaningful and positive way. Repetition was made to the original score by Max Cooper.

Kevin McGloughlin is a filmmaker and artist based in Sligo, Ireland, primarily working as a director and animator. With a thirst for innovation and creativity, Kevin’s initiative is to create immersive and thought-provoking experiences using unconventional methods of film and animation. Mainly working in an abstracted and expressionistic form, he incorporates a myriad of experimental techniques in his endeavours. He has a particular fondness for music, especially experimental electronic genres.

Sediment Nodes
Feileacan McCormick and Sofia Crespo
Running Time: 1 minute 59 seconds, looping
Sediment-laden waters often appear muddily opaque. The multitude of suspended particles, disturbed by wind, tide, storm, flood, or even our activities, seem to cloud our view of aquatic life. We spare little thought for the suspended sediment itself, although it signals that there is, or was movement. But it too is full of life, colour and form. Sediment Nodes (2921/2022) explores the connections and interconnections between what we assume to be inert; of the complexities of colour and light hidden from us by the scale and the diffusion of light and osmosis in a liquid medium.

Entangled Others is the shared studio practice of artists Feileacan McCormick and Sofia Crespo. Their work focuses on ecology, artificial lifeforms and generative arts, with an emphasis on giving the more-than-human new forms a presence and life in digital space. This involves exploring questions of relationship, biodiversity, and awareness through biology-inspired technologies. They highlight how through conscious efforts, new technology can be used to bring attention and awareness to the unseen, with which we are tightly interwoven. Entanglement is a complex state, one where no single entity can be said to be separate or unaffected by any other. We cannot consider ourselves without others, act without interacting, or speak without being heard.

Spaces for Art

How can we make creative spaces?  Making art and encountering art both require space to happen. But what does it take to make a genuinely creative space? As IMMA’s summer programme comes to a close, and to mark the extension of Living Canvas at IMMA for a further two years, artists and programmers talk about their work, and about bringing art and place to life.

Join us on the 1 September at 6pm for a talk featuring artists reflections and a panel discussion with Mary Cremin, Head of Programming, IMMA; Niall Gaffney, Chief Executive, IPUT Real Estate; artists Alan Gilsenan and Ruth Lyons; moderated by writer and curator Gemma Tipton. Free, booking required, for more details and to book click here.

Screening Timetable

9.30am – 12.30pm: Mind’s Eye, (2026), Simon Reilly

12.30pm – 2.30pm: An Artist, The Studio, and all the rest…, (2006-2012), John Beattie

2.30 – 6.30pm: Ghosts of Baggotonia (2023), Alan Gilsenan

About the Films

9.30am – 12.30pm
Mind’s Eye
Simon Reilly
Running time: 6 minutes, 24 seconds
Mind’s Eye (2006) is an engaging short film depicting a young boy and his attempts at sketching a horse. The film deals with the duality of existence, showing us what is there and what is not there. Is the horse real or is it a projection of the boy’s powerful imagination, creating an alternate world? Inner and outer realities and how the boy perceives them are manifested in the drawings as he endeavours again and again to capture the grace and elegance of the horse. This film leaves you questioning its meaning long after you’ve seen it

An award-winning multimedia artist born in Dublin, Simon Reilly studied art at the College of Marketing and Design, Dublin and the University of Art Belfast. He has shown his work around the world, including at the Castel Dell Ovo, Naples; Gallery Analix, Geneva; Betty Cuningham Gallery, New York; DCP, San Francisco, Itami City Museum of Art, Japan; Galleria Jan Wagner, Berlin, Orchard Gallery Derry; Project Art Centre Dublin; The Temple Bar Gallery, Dublin; and at The Butler Gallery, Kilkenny.

12.30pm – 2.30pm

An Artist, The Studio, and all the rest… (2006-2012)
John Beattie
Running Time: Part 1, 13 minutes, Part 2, 8 Minutes
An Artist, The Studio, and all the rest… takes the form of two film projections with sound in which Beattie explores the relationship between traditional academic ideas of the artist and their practice and contemporary approaches to art making. The first film is shot in the studio of Thomas Ryan, a past president of the RHA, in which they created a Master/Apprentice collaboration. For the second film Beattie appropriated Gustav Courbet’s The Artist’s Studio, 1854/55, and staged a recreation of the image in The Great Hall, at the Irish Museum of Modern Art. For the tableaux he invited artists, and representatives of the cultural institutions in Ireland to pose for this carefully choreographed re-staging.

John Beattie is a visual artist whose practice engages with historical and cultural narratives working across a range of media – including video, film, and photography. Beattie’s work re-stages and reconstructs temporal themes both as a conceptual framework and as a process integral to the making of the work itself. His work prompts viewers to reflect on issues of history, time, and its interpretation. Beattie’s work is in public and private collections, including: The Hugh Lane Gallery Collection, The Office of Public Works, and The Arts Council of Ireland Collection.

2.30pm – 6.30pm
Ghosts of Baggotonia
Alan Gilsenan
Running time: 85 minutes
Ghosts of Baggotonia (2023) explores the literary and other ghosts of the bohemian quarter bordering Dublin’s Baggot Street during the mid-20th century.  Baggotonia was both a permeable geographic area and a cultural movement, populated by writers, artists and other intellectuals living an anarchic life at odds with the overarching drabness and conservative mores of the time. Inspired by a rare collection of photographs from artist Nevill Johnson, the film is shot in stark Leica monotone and draws upon writings from the period, including by Patrick Kavanagh, Elizabeth Bowen, Samuel Beckett, Blanaid Salkeld, John Montague, Eavan Boland, Paul Durcan, Ethna McCarthy, Thomas Kinsella amongst many others. Sound tracked by Brian Crosby, the film is Narrated by Alan Gilsenan and Camille O’Sullivan.

Alan Gilsenan is a multi-award-winning Irish writer and film-maker. His diverse body of film-work extends across documentary, feature films and experimental work. He is also a Theatre Director, including at the Abbey, Smock Alley and London’s Barbican Centre. His adaptation of John Banville’s The Book of Evidence was staged at The Gate Theatre. In 1986, he founded Yellow Asylum Films with Martin Mahon,

Literary Lunchtimes

Settle down with a sandwich as words and images come together on screen.

The Poetry Project
Originally commissioned as part of the Culture Programme of Ireland’s EU Presidency in 2013, The Poetry Project paired contemporary Irish poetry with videos by contemporary Irish artists. The Project was viewed over the course of the Presidency by people in more than one hundred countries. A partnership between The Kinsale Arts Festival, The Royal Hibernian Academy and Poetry Ireland, the Poetry Project was curated by Gemma Tipton with Patrick Murphy and Gerry Smyth, and was supported by Culture Ireland and Foras na Gaeilge. Ten Poetry Project films were shown on Living Canvas at Wilton Park, and we are pleased to present six of these. Full archive at www.thepoetryproject.ie

Artist: Cléa van der Grijn, Niesje. Poet: Vona Groarke, The Clutch Handbag

Artist: Aideen Barry, Beyond the Flock. Poet: Máire Mhac an tSaoi, A fhir dar fhulaing

Artist: Nick Miller, The Colours. Poet: John F Deane, The Colours

Artist: Anne Ffrench, until the end. Poet: Iggy McGovern, The Irish Poem Is

Artist: Susan Tiger, Video for “War”. Poet: Enda Wyley, War

Aritst: Grace Weir, The Turning Point. Poet: Derek Mahon, Everything Is Going To Be All Right

Poetry on Film 
Commissioned by the Adrian Brinkerhoff Poetry Foundation and produced by Poetry Ireland, Matthew Thompson’s beautiful films bring life to new and beloved poems. Combining language, performance, music, and moving image, the films build an immersive experience that invites viewers to reconnect with an ancient art form in a wholly contemporary way.  Our chosen films from the programme showed at Wilton Park feature Dawn Watson, Sarah Clancy, FELISPEAKS, Clare Dunne, Paula Meehan, Roger Robinson, Doireann Ní Ghríofa and Kayssie K. Films are between two and five minutes long.

The Adrian Brinkerhoff Poetry Foundation is a New York–based literary organization bringing great poetry from across places, eras, and traditions together. The Foundation’s aim is to expand access to poetry for audiences worldwide to enjoy by curating outstanding poems and creating films that bring poetry to vibrant life.  See more at www.brinkerhoffpoetry.org

Canal Water
Anthony Woods
Text by Colm Tóibín
Running time: 2 minutes 43 seconds

Based on an evocative text by acclaimed writer, Colm Tóibín, Canal Water (2022) is a short film exploring the inspirations and histories of this unique part of Dublin. Calling to mind the generations of writers, and their readers who have walked these paths, and the legendary presence of Parsons Bookshop, Canal Water is a meditation on place, and how words and images inspire thoughts and feelings, and also how they intersect with echoes of the past.

Multi award winning writer Colm Tóibín is one of the best known names in Irish literature. A novelist, short story writer, essayist, playwright, journalist, critic and poet, he is also an educator, and was called “a champion of minorities” by then Arts Council Director, Mary Cloake, as well as been named as one of the top three hundred “public figures leading our discourse” in Britain – despite, of course, his being Irish. Anthony Woods is a much sought after photographer and videographer, based in Dublin. His film Canal Water was an IPUT Real Estate commission to mark the first season of literary programming: Writing Dublin at Wilton Park.

Animation Weekends
Bring the family on weekend mornings to see leading Irish animation in action

Fear of Flying
Conor Finnegan
Running time: 9 minutes 10 seconds
Fear of Flying was inspired by a mild panic attack on a turbulent flight from Helsinki to Dublin circa 2010. The film combines a mix of live action puppetry, 2d animation and CGI. Fear of Flying features the voices of Mark Doherty as Dougal, Aoife Duffin as Lucy, with Steven Courtney taking the other roles. The film was produced by Brunella Cocchiglia, Ivan McCullough was Director of Photography, and Music and Sound Design was by Echolab. Conor has since conquered his fear of flying.
Conor Finnegan is an animation writer and director based in Dublin. He is represented for commercial work with Nexus studios in London where he has directed work for clients such as Macy’s, Target, Android, Oatly and more.

A Cat Called Jam
Lorraine Lordan
Running time: 8 minutes
A Cat Called Jam tells the story of Jam, a cat who sees himself differently from how the rest of the world sees him. Jam is a cat who knows who he is. And who he is.. is a dog! When he meets a group of mismatched dogs, he wants nothing more than to join their merry band of misfits. This is easier said than done when people only take in appearances. But there is a small light at the end of the tunnel in the form of placid old hound, Max. Jam faces challenges along the way but in the end Max’s insights and encouragement helps him stay true to himself. A Cat Called Jam was written and directed by Lorraine Lordan, and produced by Jeremy Purcell. It features the voices of Amy Huberman, Evan Lordan, Owen Rowe, Caoimhe Ní Bhradaigh, Sophie and Emma Deasy and Lorraine Lordan.

Lorraine Lordan is a veteran of the animation industry spanning many years and projects. She has been Animation Director on titles such as the Puffin Rock TV Series and The Breadwinner Feature Film. A Cat Called Jam is her directorial debut. Jeremy has been working in the animation industry for almost 20 years, starting out in 1999 working for the then fledgling Cartoon Saloon before starting his own studio, A Man & Ink, with Lorraine Lordan. He has returned to Cartoon Saloon, working on feature films and TV series.

The Bird and the Whale
Carol Freeman
Running time: 7 minutes
The Bird and the Whale is a story about a young whale struggling to find his voice. After straying too far from his family to explore a shipwreck, he discovers its sole survivor, a caged songbird. Together they struggle to survive lost at sea. The Bird and the Whale was created using a near obsolete technique called paint-on-glass animation. Each frame is hand-painted with slow drying oil paint and shot with a top-down camera in a light controlled room. After a frame is shot, the paint is wiped away and the next frame is repainted almost entirely from scratch. Each new frame created, destroys the last. The full 7 minutes of animation is made up of over 4300, 24 x 34 inch paintings and took a team of 5 artists over 14 months to paint.

Carol Freeman is an award-winning director and art director best known for her IFTA-nominated and Cannes Young Director Award winning paint-on-glass short, The Bird and the Whale. She is the Founder and Director of Dublin based stop-motion studio, Paper Panther. She has racked up over 60 award wins and ten nominations for her short and commercial work. Carol is also a voting member of the Irish Film & Television Academy.

Well Done, Mummy Penguin
Chris Haughton
Running time: 3 minutes
Chris Haughton turns to Antarctica for an ode to family bonds and awesome mums.

“She’ll be back soon, won’t she?”
“She sure will,” says Daddy Penguin.

The sky may be dark over icy waters, but Mummy Penguin is off to catch some fish for dinner. As Daddy and Little Penguin watch in suspense, Mummy swims, jumps, and climbs up a slippery slope, barely avoiding a plunge back into the sea. Well done! There’s just one more hurdle to overcome, past some grumpy, just-awakened seals, before she returns to her anxiously waiting family. With a nod to the fascinating nature of penguin parenting, this boldly illustrated adventure from the creator of Little Owl Lost and Oh No, George! will have little ones happily on the edge of their seats as they root for Mummy Penguin.

Currently Laureate na nÓg, Chris Haughton is an Irish illustrator and author. He was listed in Time magazine’s ‘DESIGN 100’ for the work he has been doing for fair trade clothing company People Tree. His books have been translated into more than 35 languages. He released an iOS app, HAT MONKEY in 2014 and virtual reality experience LITTLE EARTH in August 2017. Chris created madebynode.com to connect design and fair trade.

The Small Makings of a Storm 
Avery Angle
Running Time: 4 Minutes 43 Seconds
From rising mists to billowing clouds, water weaves its way through every environment, leaving an impression on even the smallest of creatures. Expanding to loftier heights, drops of water begin to transform into something far more commanding – a force of nature. This short film explores the basic demands of a storm that allow water to gain its own autonomy and take on a new destructive form.  While paying homage to the ‘Original Sublime’, being Nature; this film brings landscape to the forefront of the narrative.

Avery Angle is an artist and filmmaker living in Dublin. She has a strong passion for landscape painting, illustration, and bringing art to life through animation. Showcasing her love of nature, with a touch of added drama on the animated screen, she explores what film could look like where nature takes the centre stage. The Small Makings of a Storm was her graduate film and also appeared in the 2023 Dublin International Film Festival Programme.

Buzzin
Farouk Alao
Poem by Catherine Ann Cullen
Running time: 2 minutes 47 seconds
Inspired by a dream the artist had after reading Catherine Ann Cullen’s poem, Buzzin’ with Our Cousins, this animation reflects how the artist imagines a bee sees and playfully navigates its world: the world through the surreal perspective of a bee. Through vibrant visuals and surreal imagery, the artwork invites viewers to see the world from a new angle, where ordinary objects take on surreal forms. With the film, the artist aims to highlight the beauty and wonder of nature. Music by AyoMax.

Farouk Alao is a multi-disciplinary artist and web designer. His work explores film, photography, design, 3D animation, print and more. His style is constantly evolving. Aiming to make sense of the world around him, he hopes to help others understand theirs. He focuses on humanity, questioning the things we think we know about ourselves. Farouk is founder of 858, an experimental creative playground and curatorial practice that has been platforming young artists since 2018.

Catherine Ann Cullen is an award-winning poet, children’s writer and songwriter, and author of seven books, including The Song of Brigid’s Cloak (Beehive 2022). She was inaugural Poetry Ireland Poet in Residence 2019-21. She is an Irish Research Council Postdoctoral Fellow with Poetry Ireland and UCD, writing a book on the lost street poets of Dublin.