Who says there's no glamour or glitz in documentary making? Take a look at the dashing Derry O'Brien, of Network Ireland Television, chatting to the glamorous Siobhan O'Donoghue, of Media Desk Ireland. And there's the effervescent, trendy and downright sizzling documentary producer Susan Liddy.
But, yes, documentary making is the "down and dirty end" of the film industry, says O'Brien, as he chats to Michael Kenna, of Enterprise Ireland. "It's often the bread and butter end of it," he says. "It's gritty," they agree.
A world premiere and a photographic exhibition open Doclands, the first documentary film festival and market to be held in Ireland. The exhibition, The Travellers of Ireland by Alen MacWeeney, is based on his photographs of the Travelling community taken in the 1960s in Ireland.
Some of those he photographed are here. Patrick O'Rourke points to himself in one of the 50 photographs, which are on view at the National Photographic Archive. Why does he look so fierce? It was taken when "I was having a go at a fellow", he recalls. His wife, Sarah O'Rourke, is here, too. They're together 44 years "like two bad onions", he jokes. "My mother wasn't a Traveller. She married a Traveller. That's the way things go. You don't know what's in front of you." Martina Maughan has come with her mother, Helen Maughan who was photographed as "a little tinker girl" in 1965 by MacWeeney.
The exhibition will run until Saturday November 4th. John T. Davis, co-director of the film May the Road Rise With You, which is based on MacWeeney's photographs, is delighted to welcome us to the film about to be screened. "It was such a privilege for us to delve into another area of life . . . I really had an eye-opener, and I enjoyed myself immensely . . . I think we've made a film that has heart in it."