A Mother's Legacy

Pauline Bewick, one of Ireland’s best-loved painters, lives and works in the wild, mountainous country of Kerry’s Reeks District. Despite the remoteness of her home, she has great company in her daughter, Poppy Melia, who lives next door and is also an artist. The two discuss their family’s unconventional matriarchal history and how nature serves as their calling to the art world while Bewick works on what will become her final painting. After Bewick’s death, Poppy revisits one of the forests that inspired her mother’s work and considers how her own approach to art might evolve.

  • Matt Sclarandis
    Director
    Pathmasiri, The Sky Was Grey, Fine Line
  • Marcella O'Connor
    Director
    Brightness of Brightness (2023), James Joyce: Framed in Cork (2020) and The Lament for Art O’Leary (2019)
  • Marcella O'Connor
    Writer
  • Matt Sclarandis
    Writer
  • Nina Nogulic
    Producer
  • Project Type:
    Documentary, Short
  • Runtime:
    14 minutes 19 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    June 11, 2023
  • 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:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
Director Biography - Matt Sclarandis, Marcella O'Connor

Matt Sclarandis is a photographer and documentarian whose work has featured in Vice, Elle and Vanity Fair. He co founded the Tae Brothers, film initiative which aimed to make documentaries about marginalised remote communities and in return donated back the funds from screenings to the people who’s stories were told.
His love of mountaineering, trekking and nature exploration inspired his latest project and he is currently enroute on an overland journey from Turin to Singapore, following in the footsteps of his father, National Geographic photographer Piergiorgio Sclarandis, who made a similar journey on a Vespa in his youth.

Marcella O’Connor is a documentary filmmaker based in Kerry. Her film, The Lament for Art O’Leary (2019) won Best Documentary at the 2020 Film and Video Symposium in Los Angeles. In 2022, she took up an appointment as Filmmaker in Residence with Kerry County Council.

Matt, Marcella and Nina initially came together on a photoshoot of the Reeks District sustainable tourism initiative. Fascinated by the natural wonders and the vibrant local community that enveloped Carrauntoohil, Ireland's tallest mountain, they reunited to shoot a series of short documentaries to serve as a way of telling the captivating narratives of the area.

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