Ireland, Canada, 2017
Director: Pat Collins; writers: Pat Collins, Eoghan Mac Giolla Bhríde, Sharon Whooley; cinematography: Richard Kendrick; editing: Tadhg O’ Sullivan; sound: John Brennan; production design: Padraig O’Neill; producers: Alan Maher, Jessie Fisk, Martin Paul-Hus; production companies: Marcie Films, Amerique Film production with Harvest Films, South Wind Blows, Roads Entertainment; Irish location: Co. Galway, Dublin; running time: 100’
Cast: Macdara Ó Fatharta, Mícheál Ó Confhaola, Colm Seoighe, Jaren Cerf
Synopsis
Enigmatic and complex, Joe Heaney was one of the greats of traditional Irish singing. Shaped by the myths, fables and songs of his upbringing in the west of Ireland, his emergence as a gifted artist came at a personal cost. An intense exploration of music and song, Song of Granite portrays his life.
Director
Pat Collins has directed over 25 films. His first film Michael Hartnett, Necklace of Wrens won the Jury Award at the Celtic Film Festival in 2000. Since then he has directed Talking to the Dead (2000), Oiléan Thoraí/Tory Island (2002), Abbas Kiarostami – The Art of Living (2004). The feature documentary Gabriel Byrne: Stories from Home was presented at Irish Film Festa in 2008. He has directed documentaries on the Irish writers Frank O’ Connor and John McGahern, the poet Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill and the Connemara based writer and cartographer Tim Robinson (Tim Robinson’s Connemara, presented at Irish Film Festa 2012). He completed his first feature film Silence in 2012. More recently he directed feature documentary Living in a Coded Land which won Best Irish Documentary at Dublin Film Festival 2014, and the three-part tv series 1916: The Irish Rebellion, documenting the 1916 Rising. Song of Granite is his second feature film.
Trailer