A pioneering cross-Border project by the Calipo company has led to 40 young people making their film débuts, reports Karen Fricker
Anyone passing by the Sugar Club in Dublin at 8 p.m. last Sunday night would have been privy to a curious and captivating sight: some 40 young people, decked out in formal wear, pouring out of white limousines and rushing excitedly down a red carpet to bursts of flashbulbs. A rogue out-of-season debs, or some Academy Awards affair for teenagers? Both, actually, in a way: the young people were arriving to witness their own débuts as film actors, in four short movies made by Drogheda-based Calipo Theatre and Picture Company.
This pioneering cross-Border film project, called Sharp Focus, was funded by a major grant from the EU's Peace and Reconciliation Programme and has taken two years of planning and execution on Calipo's part. What makes Sharp Focus notable is how thoroughly thought-out and executed it was, and how focused on providing a meaningful experience for its young participants. Most of the young people involved come from disadvantaged backgrounds, and a criterion of the project was that all the films address themes of community and identity. Beyond that, though, the programme was carefully structured to let the participants dictate what stories they wanted to tell, and what messages they wanted to send.
The project is a continuation and expansion of Calipo's work as a theatre company which also works in film, video and television production. When he and several friends started Calipo in 1994, explains Calipo's artistic director Darren Thornton, they supported their theatre efforts by working as youth drama facilitators; and their theatre work has always integrated film and video elements into live action.
"This project was born out of a desire to do something really structured that would bring young people through a rich artistic process, and which would have a really strong artistic outcome, that they and we could stand over . . . Also, outreach is a fundamental part of our work, because our ambition creatively is to make work that inspires a young audience. Now when we regroup to make our next play, we'll know better where young people are coming from," he says.
The active part of the Sharp Focus process kicked off in September last year with a residential weekend in Dublin, in which all four of the groups came together for some introductory games and exercises to start them thinking about plot, character, and storytelling. Each film was created through a week-long devising process, supervised by two adult facilitators and a professional writer and director. The writers then went off and created scripts for 15-minute-long films, which were subject to the approval of the young actors. The week-long shoots happened in November, which Thornton says made for some very long, cold, rainy nights. Whatever dampness and discomfort he recalls, however, had disappeared from the memories of every Sharp Focus participant I talked to at the Sugar Club. None had complaints about the longeurs of the actual shooting process, and all said enthusiastically that they loved the experience and they'd happily do it again.
Making a film is one thing; actually seeing yourself on screen is another, as no less an experienced hand than Brendan Gleeson warned the fledgling actors in a launch speech on Sunday night: "It's going to be hard to watch yourselves up there tonight . . ."
Indeed, there were the expected squeals and cheers as the films started and familiar faces appeared on screen, but the room quietened down fast, because the stories being told were so gripping and so different from each other.
The Day We Skipped the Bus, created by the Shankill Women's Project, is a gritty, but often funny, day-in-the-life story set in working-class west Belfast. It begins and ends with a group of girls practicing dance routines on the pavement, and what happens in between is what writer Don McCamphill calls "an odyssey". One girl gets sick after smoking a spliff with her boyfriend, who deserts her on a bench. Another sneaks off to drink cans of beer with an older man in his car: the twist in this plot is genuinely surprising, and moving. Two sisters' plan to earn extra money by dog-walking goes awry when the Samoyeds they're minding run away.
"The heart of the story," says McCamphill, "is that there is danger for young women: abusive male relationships, inconsiderate boyfriends, conflict with parents, shady characters. An ordinary day, and danger is everywhere."
Perhaps the most obvious danger - the Northern political context - is only a backdrop to the film, in the form of a framing story about sectarian attacks on school buses. McCamphill, who is also from the Belfast area, says that this lateral approach to the Troubles comes directly out of the devising workshops: "There was more of an absence that I noted than a presence. At various times where it would have been expected to relate to the Troubles, the young women seemed to avoid it explicitly. It's an ever-present reality, but it doesn't intrude all the time."
The political situation is referred to even more laterally in the film by the Bosco Drama Group from Newry, Bounce (which, blessedly, bears no relation to the dire Ben Affleck-Gwyneth Paltrow film of the same name).
A light-hearted caper film, Bosco's Bounce tells the story of a pitched battle between two local girls to represent Newry at the World Trampolining Championships in Hawaii. That the film seems designed to combat Newry's image as a dull, embattled Border town is clear from its first long shot, which captures the town looking glistening and immaculate in warm morning sun.
"Newry used to be a terrible place to live," admits 18-year-old participant Mark McGuigan. "But it's changed now. We wanted to show a different view of our town."
Participating in Sharp Focus has brought changes to the life of this youth group, reports Bosco's group leader, Jim McGuigan. The group found money to set up an editing suite in their youth club, and two of the participants are considering careers as film-makers. McGuigan also highlights the broadening effect that participation in that first residential weekend had on them.
"The process was important," he says. "They didn't just learn about theatre and film and acting; they learned about different cultures and backgrounds."
Sligo Youthreach's film The Ring tells a dark story of a young orphan (memorably portrayed by doe-eyed Daniel Clancy) trying to extricate himself from the local drugs scene. This is not a Fáilte Ireland vision of the verdant north-west: the film is shot in black and white, and the familiar visage of Ben Bulben hangs over the town like a threat. Veronica Kelly plays Clancy's girlfriend in the film, who talks about wanting to get out of the "kip" that is Sligo. At the Sugar Club evening, Clancy and Kelly confirmed that this reflects the viewpoint of many people they know: feeling trapped, but not quite knowing where they'd go to if they left.
It's not all grimness though: Clancy's character does manage to find a way out, and the final frames switch to full colour as we see him playing football with a smile on his face for the first time.
"What I enjoyed most about this was the humour of the guys and girls," says writer Christian O'Reilly. "This is their world and they are accepting of it. They are really interesting people, and we wanted to reflect the fact that there is darkness but there is also light."
"Welcome to Historic Clones" reads a road sign in the opening frame of Ionad na nÓg's film, The Last Laugh, as Last Gunfight at the OK Corral-style music sounds ironically in the background. Like the Newry film, this one is told in a caper style, telling the story of a zealous new garda's campaign to stomp out egg- pegging on Halloween, and of the young people determined to resist his efforts.
Though the gardaí end up thoroughly outwitted by the end of the film, Don McCamphill, who worked as assistant director on the Clones and Sligo shoots as well as writing the Belfast film, says that the Clones Garda Síochána took it all in their stride and were "very helpful".
"Apparently the people of Clones have had their fill of film-making lately - The Butcher Boy was shot there - and we were worried that arriving with another film crew might have been too much," he says. "But everyone was very welcoming; we all had a fine time."
Mark McGuigan and Gemma Hanratty, both of whom appeared in the film, said that they felt something like local celebrities during the shoot, which took over the town for a week. Both young people have winning screen presences, and are now seriously considering acting as a career.
For their part, Calipo's staff - Thornton, general manager Collette Farrell, and project manager John Ruddy - have been working on the project since well before the September workshops.
"A total budget of €300,000, 40 young people, 25 project workers and crew, eight youth leaders, a full-time editor and editing suite," rattles off Farrell, who says that the post-production process in particular stretched the company to its limit. But she, like the rest of the participants, is clearly proud of the results, and the company have already put in an application for repeat funding, with the intention of engaging with a different set of communities this year.
Each of the young actors in this first round of Sharp Focus gets a videotape of all four films - and an experience it seems doubtful they will ever forget. After the screening on Sunday night, there were hot dogs and cocktails, and the beginnings of what looked like a long night of dancing and mingling. Myself and the other aged audience members headed for the door: like every other element of this admirable project, the night belonged to the kids themselves.
• The Sharp Focus films will be screened at a second gala, at Belfast's Waterfront Hall, on May 21st. Information on 041-9837455