Bananas
Rose, a once homeless woman who has overcome her demons and battled addiction, wakes early one morning in beautiful Kilbroney Park, Rostrevor, and reviews her life in 'dialogue' with the metal Dryad Narnia sculptures in the woods. In this emotional and sometimes poignant but always compassionate story of transformation and hope, there is much to smile at whilst highlighting many of the problems in today's society. The film features local Irish actress Sinéad Lunny in her first screen role.
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Alistair LivingstoneDirectorKite Flying with Dickens, The True Myth, The Emigrant Woman's Tale, The Dirty Book
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Csilla ToldyWriterWriter- Director: Axis Mundi, Storm in East Belfast, Belfast Exposed, The Bloom Mystery, Here I stand, Here I stand -memories
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Light Theatre CompanyProducerThe Emigrant Woman's Tale, The True Myth, Kite Flying with Dickens
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Sinéad LunnyKey Cast"Rose"
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Slack Press StudiosCamera and SoundBBC NI - True North - Series 13 - Episode 1 Camera Team and editing; The Paulie Project Documentary - Road Safety Pre-Production, Camera Team and editing; BBC Bitesized - KS3 Script, Pre-Production, Animation, Editing; Tebi Rex - The Auld Triangle (Music Video)Pre-Production, Camera Team and editing.
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Tommy SandsIncidental MusicInternational Musician
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Dhar - ManIncidentl Music
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Project Type:Short
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Runtime:17 minutes 54 seconds
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Completion Date:September 27, 2022
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Production Budget:8,000 USD
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Country of Origin:United Kingdom
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Country of Filming:United Kingdom
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Language:English
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Shooting Format:Digital
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Aspect Ratio:16:9
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Film Color:Color
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First-time Filmmaker:No
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Student Project:No
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WRPN Women's International Film Festival
United States
1st USA Screening
Excellence: Actress: Lead (subcat), Sinead Lunny
I have worked internationally as a designer and director for theatre and films and as an arts consultant on local and government projects and have lectured in art and design at graduate and postgraduate level in the UK and Australia.
Production design credits include the Royal Ballet, Scottish Ballet, South Australian Opera, Australian Ballet, The New National Theatre Tokyo, The Abbey Theatre Dublin, Channel Four Television and United Artists Films. As well as designing large scale opera and ballet productions and as art director for feature films including Michael Caccoyanis' film of The Trojan Women, I have worked on small scale projects in a damp basement in Liverpool for Ken Campbell, a black box for The Stage Company in Adelaide, outdoor performance spaces and with contemporary dance companies including Dance Arena, Mark Baldwin Company, CandoCo and Union Dance. My drawings, paintings and photographs are included in many public and private collections
I have worked as an arts consultant on major art projects and studies and I was appointed as the first Administrative Director of the Perth Institute of Contemporary Art in W. Australia.
After returning to live in the United Kingdom in 1992, I initially concentrated on a return to more personal creative projects and exhibitions of mixed media works and black and white photographs were shown in galleries in Germany and London. I was also commissioned by companies in Japan and Argentina to design classical ballets.
Through our production company, my partner Csilla Toldy and I attracted development funding from the Media 11 Programme and Northern Ireland Film and Television Commission and other sources for a range of projects, several of which are still in varying stages of development.
Most recent work immediately prior to and during the covid pandemic includes representation in an exhibition in Athens, a virtual exhibition hosted by An Tain in Dundalk, IE and most recently I have directed five short films relating to C.S Lewis, Charles Dickens as well as a filmed versions of theatre projects Bananas and The Emigrant Woman’s Tale. Most recently I curated and directed a part online, part live Rostrevor Bloomsday Festival in Rostrevor for Light Theatre Company. In 2019 I was the Artist in Residence at Creative Spark in Dundalk and at the Belfast Print Workshop (BPW). A retrospective exhibition of my Designs for the Theatre was in the main gallery at the Market Place Art Gallery in January and February 2019 and a solo exhibition of prints was shown the Down Arts Centre in April and May of that year. I directed an in-the-round production of Csilla Toldy’s play “Bananas” for the E. Belfast Arts Festival and “The Bloom Mystery” based on an imagined dialogue between James Joyce and a Hungarian journalist, at the Rostrevor Inn on Bloomsday 2019. I am the retiring Chairman of the Stephen Joseph Committee (SJC) of The Association of British Theatre Technicians (ABTT). As Artistic Director of the Light Theatre Company I am involved in the ICBAN Funded Spot-Lit programme to promote Literary Tourism in the Newry and Mourne Area and am a mentor on the Future Screens/ Future Foundations project.
I am currently developing new film projects, including a script originally written by Wolf Mankovitz.
Although I have directed many theatre productions and worked as an art director and production designer for films, it is only recently that I have started to direct for the screen. This has partly been from necessity because of the pandemic lockdown.
Originally a theatre piece by Csilla Toldy, Bananas was filmed on a shoestring budget with Sinéad Lunny as Rose, in the beautiful woods of Kilbroney Park. The metal Dryad sculptures act as 'characters' in response to the sensitively written script, in which the emotional strength of Rose gradually reveals layers of her life, ultimately reflecting that 'we all have a story to tell' - even the metal sculptures!
Working with John Fitzsimons and Ryan O'Rourke from SlackPress Studios and without any additional crew, the production was filmed in one day. Sinéad, despite having never previously acted for film, was extraordinary to work with and together with John, who also edited and Ryan, and despite the limitations of budget and Covid restrictions, the entire project was a delight to work on. I hope you enjoy watching it as much as we enjoyed making it.