SCREEN IRELAND PROVES IRISH FILM HAS FAILED!

Now that our beloved Film Board is getting renamed what does this show? Back over twenty years we have failed to produce a new Jim Sheridan or Neil Jordan. Not that must Irish directors wanted to emulate these overrated filmmakers but they're are still our most successful. Even worse, very few Irish films have done well at the box office and the ones that have usually employed a British director. To acknowledge this failure the Irish Film Board is no more. It's not film now it's 'screen'. That mean television series/documentaries/animation/shorts, anything that fits on a screen, big or small. The kind of stuff this blog won't review or discuss. Because let's face it, it's not true cinema. Our Film Board has been very good avoiding 'cinema' over the years. Most of our success involves cartoons or documentaries. We have not produced a world-class director in decades. Not one Irish person is producing a body of original work that stands out. Forget Lenny Abrahamson and Gerard Barrett. Those guys are 'art-house imitators'. Their films are check-the-box fare, stylish and lifeless. The Film Board is no more. Now it's Screen Ireland. This 'Ireland' means the Republic and not Northern because like their football team they are punching above their weight. Unlike us. Irish Film has failed and the Board realises. New Irish filmmakers are more interested in TV shows and animation than making anything worthwhile in cinema.