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"I achieved insanity and survived to talk about
it", said Bob Quinn in an interview with Michael Finlan in the Irish
Times some twenty years ago. Before then, and since, Quinn has been one
of Ireland's most prolific and challenging film makers. Concetrating all
his work and thought from his home/workplace in Conamara, Quinn has
continued to make films, and in between filmmaking, to write a novel
'Smokey Hollow', and the book of Atlantean. All of Quinn's films to date
have been made under the umbrella of his company CINEGAEL which he
founded 20 years ago with civil rights activists Tone Cristofides and
Seosamh Ó Cuaig. The name CINEGAEL is a pun created by Ó Cuaig meaning
literally 'the Irish race", but important to Quinn for its cinematic
connotations. CINEGAEL describes precisely the twinned passions of Quinn
- cultural identity and film.
Quinn began his television career in Raidio
Teilifís Éeireann in the early sixties and directed a number of powerful
documentaries, some of which are being shown in this retrospective for
the first time since their transmission. In 1969, as one of the prime
movers, with Lelia Doolan and Jack Dowling, of the revolutionary change
that swept through RTE, Quinn left the Organisation and settled in
Conamara with his family. After producing some shorts, CINEGAEL's first
feature, Caoineadh Áirt UÍ Laoire (Lament for Art O'Leary) was
completed. The film has a complex structure, using the story of the 18th
century Irish rebel to examine questions of national identity, Irish
culture and the nature of history itself. Poitín followed two years
later and in telling the story of illicit whiskey-makers in Conamara, it
upends stereotypes of the Irish landscape and the representation of
women. In 1980, as part of the Aisling Gheal series, Quinn made a film
called Master Musicians of Jajouka about a troupe of Berber musicians in
Conamara, and from this film 'seed' grew his ambitious three-part
speculation Atl;antean which examines the roots of Irish music in North
African culture.
In 1986 followed Budawanny, a film shot on Clare
Island from the novel Súil le Breith' by Pádraig Standúin. Budawanny
tells the story of the relationship between a young island priest and
his housekeeper. Quinn, not know for letting go of anything that eats
into his soul, is now re-making Budawanny as The Bishop's Story.
Quinn's philosophy of indigenous film making
means remaining true to his Irish identity.
A fiercely uncompromising man, and a fiercely
uncompromising film maker, he wants his films to be seen by those to
whom he has shown a passionate artistic commitment over the last three
decades - The Irish People.
- Patsy Murphy |
