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a hidden delight - the happy prince

A Hidden Delight is a magical, experimental interpretation of Irish writer Oscar Wildes’ fairytale The Happy Prince. In which the statue of the eponymous prince befriends a swallow and asks him to complete a task to redistribute his jewels and gold across the poor of the city. A task which will ultimately cost the swallow his life. This is a unique collaboration with haunting colour saturated hand drawn animations from Visual Artist Felicity Clear and a soundtrack provided by composer Michael Gallen whose original composition was recorded by the RTE concert orchestra and the almost other worldly sound of Cor Na n’Og, The National Childrens Choir. It was produced by Athena Media with funding from The Broadcasting Authority of Ireland, Lyric FM, and Dublin City Council.

  • Felicity clear
    Director
    first time director
  • Michael Gallen
    Director
    first time director
  • athena media
    Producer
    www.athenamedia.ie
  • Project Type:
    Animation, Experimental, Short
  • Runtime:
    5 minutes 25 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    October 1, 2016
  • Production Budget:
    5,000 EUR
  • Country of Origin:
    Ireland
  • Country of Filming:
    Ireland
  • Language:
    English
  • Shooting Format:
    digital
  • Aspect Ratio:
    16:9
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    Yes
  • Student Project:
    No
  • wildestories live
    Dublin
    Ireland
    October 22, 2016
    irish premier
Director Biography - Felicity clear, Michael Gallen

Felicity Clear is an award winning visual artist, born and based in Dublin. Her work primarily, large-scale drawings and more recently animation, explores ideas of space, structure, stability and failure.She has exhibited widely in Ireland and internationally, including: The Irish Museum of Modern Art, Butler Gallery, Kilkenny; Crawford Museum Cork; The National Gallery of Ireland; Limerick City Galley; Contemporary Arts Society London; and Museum of Contemporary Art, Shanghai.Her work is included in many public and private collections including, Goldman Sachs UK, The Arts Council, Allied Irish Bank, National Drawing Collection at Limerick City Gallery, The Butler Gallery Collection. www.felicityclear.com

Michael Gallen is an award winning Irish composer, performer and documentary maker. Having studied with Jose Manuel Lopez Lopez in Paris, he has become a regularly commissioned composer for choral, ensemble and orchestral work at home and abroad. He composes regularly for stage, and a new opera, "A Month in the Lock" will premiere in 2017. Recent notable work includes TARDIGRADE, a music/dance-theatre collaboration and winner at the 2014 Dublin Fringe Festival, and What You Forget, a landmark choral/installation work commissioned for the 1916 Centenary commemoration celebrations. www.michaeljgallen.com

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Director Statement

A Hidden Delight/The Happy Prince is the first in a suit of 5 animations, based on five fairytales by Irish Writer Oscar Wilde.
The collective name for the suit is Wilde Stories. Wilde Stories has had one outdoor screening in Dublin in an event that included readings from the stories, actors and academics with an interest in Wilde.
In 1888 Oscar Wilde was in his mid-thirties, and married with two young sons, when he published his collection of children's stories 'The Happy Prince and other Tales’. Within ten years he would go from being one of the most celebrated playwrights in London to disgrace and prison. He was dead by 1900.
Oscar Wilde is a figure who is at once caricatured through quotes and epigrams, and yet shrouded in mystery, with the vagaries of his personal life and imprisonment often eclipsing the complex splendor of his work.
Perhaps best known for his play The Importance of Being Earnest and his novel The Picture of Dorian Gray, his collection of fairytales The Happy Prince and Other Tales (1888) all hint at the 'adult' themes of love, truth, sacrifice and death that resonate in his other work, but are handled with his signature wit and sensitivity.
Wilde Stories is an artistic project around this collection of fairytales. This Athena Media production brings together Irish artists including composer Michael Gallen and visual artist Felicity Clear, to re-imagine the stories in a unique collaboration. Gallen composed a suit of original compositions for orchestra and choir, inspired by Wilde and the stories. The music was recorded by the national childrens choir Cor na nOg and RTE National Symphony Orchestra. Clear made a suit of hand drawn animations responding to the stories and to Gallen’s compositions.
The project was supported by the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland, RTE lyric FM and Dublin City Council