By Claire Corrigan
Killucan filmmaker, Craig Moore is bringing his film ‘Monged’ to the 17th Chicago Irish Film Festival which is taking place from 3 to 6 March in the Gallery Theatre on Milwalkee Avenue, Chicago. The festival has been dedicated to presenting the works of Irish filmmakers to the Chicago film community since 1999 and has screened over 500 features, documentaries and short films by many of Ireland’s most talented and award-winning filmmakers. There will be a total of nine films shown over the three-day event.
Speaking to Topic, Craig said he was looking forward to the screening. “It should be a lot of fun. We’re on Friday at 9pm at the ‘Traders’ there this year which is a big Irish one with Killian Scott (Love/Hate’s Tommy). We were lucky in that Jude Blackburn who runs the festival was in Galway when Monged premiered there and she loved it.”
Mr. Moore has just finished his latest film, “An Irish Father,” for which he acted as executive producer. He expects the premiere to take place in Dublin in six weeks followed by a premiere in Mullingar. “I started that 18 months ago. It was written by Karl Finnegan who also directed and stars in it. It’s kind of inspired by his relationship with his own dad and was shot in Clare.”
The film follows the story of Edward, who loses his job and his girlfriend in quick succession leaving him at a crossroads in his life. On the advice of his councellor he returns home to visit his father who he has not seen or spoken to in ten years.
“Bascially his father didn’t really treat him like a son. We had Gerard McSorely (Braveheart 1995), Veronica Guerin (2003) play the lead which was great because I was a big fan of his for years. He hasn’t done anything in a while and Karl pitched the idea to him and he liked it. It was great working with him. He has so much experience and there’s very little room for error with him.”
Although the final edit finished two weeks ago, the eight and a half minute film began production in December 2014. “It’s quite high end and we had a lot of drone shots. We had Gerard who was only available on certain days and Eleanor Methven (Becoming Jane 2007) was only available for a few days too, so that’s why it took so long. I submitted to Baton Rouge film festival the other day for July. I think it’ll be something that will do very well at festivals. It’s a current topic and it’s got two well know actors.”
Mr. Moore also just finished shooting a 48-hour film project called “An American Wake” which started on Friday morning at 6am and finished Sunday morning at 5.17. “We took a three-hour break on the first night from 1am to 4am. I didn’t get any sleep at all. We had the actors on rotating shifts so they would get a three-hour break between shooting their scenes. The same with the cameramen so it wasn’t the same person shooting the whole time. The project, which was filmed in Bray, is the first of its kind in Ireland and has a strong Westmeath presence. “We had a girl called Hazel Gavigan from Mullingar and Barry Kelleghan, who is the lead, is from Raharney. I initially didn’t want to do it because I didn’t think it could be done. We only had half an hour to shoot each scene and the actors being tired all the time was a problem, but we got there in the end.”
The story centres on a young twenty-something called Eric who is about to emigrate to America. The film follows him on his last day in Ireland on which his friends decide to go all out and throw a big goodbye party. There is also the added complication of his childhood sweetheart who doesn’t want him to go.
