“…for peace comes dropping slow…” was completed and
released in Autumn 2010! We broke new ground technically with this film:
this is the first time that light writing was captured by a moving film
lens rather than a still camera. None of the gorgeous moving effects
were “painted on”, and almost all were captured via the new, Red Cine
cameras by Cian de Buitléar, DP, and Declan King, camera operator, after
extensive experimentation.
I want to thank everyone who participated in this production. Each person involved made an essential contribution. Our production team was a “dream team” including Cian de Buitléar, DP, and Tony Kearns, film editor, with Darren Carr providing documentary stills photography. The film’s soundtrack was graced by the vocals and fiddle of Seamie O’Dowd. Production manager Tara Lewis and assistants Letty Hill and Arlo Liddy were indispensable. The main light writing was performed by talented young performing arts professionals Laura Brennan, Sinead Hawkins, Noelle Kielty, Avril Lahiff, Tara Lewis, Aodan O’Connor, Kathryn Reynolds, Lorcan Strain, Arlo Liddy, who traveled from all over the Ireland to take part. Additionally, local participants from Yeats’ “Land of Heart’s Desire”, County Sligo, and from around Ireland took part in the film. The final scene was filmed with 70 participants, many of whom were from the Yeatsian Legacy and Omagh’s Peace III programme, Sligo Peace and Reconciliation, and citizens from the Sligo/Leitrim area.
Thank you to all who participated!
Here is a short synopsis of the film:
In 1888 the young William Butler Yeats wrote ‘The Lake Isle of Innisfree’, a yearning incantation of his youth spent in County Sligo near the Atlantic coast in the northwest of Ireland. Artist and Director Lisa Vandegrift Davala, lives near this island. In her film, the words “…for peace comes dropping slow…” from Yeats’ poem have been re-enacted in light across the landscape of this region of Ireland. The three locations used in the film are stunningly beautiful icons of Celtic mystery. Earth, cultural memory and identity merge in light and landscape imagery with the film score’s Gaelic incantations sung by the international legend of Irish music; Seamie O’Dowd.
During two fine summer days in 2010, people from all over Ireland (including members of the Yeatsian Legacy and Peace III Programme of Northern Ireland and a team of young actors, dancers and performers) were invited by Director Lisa Vandegrift Davala to County Sligo. They gathered at Carrane Hill Bog, Culleenamore Strand near Knocknarea and Parke’s Castle on Lough Gill overlooking Innisfree; to inscribe this ‘Land of Heart’s Desire’ with the line and mark of W. B. Yeats’ poetic light.
Director, Producer, Story, Musical director and score: Lisa Vandegrift Davala, Cinematographer: Cian de Buitléar, Stills and Documentary Photographer: Darren Carr, Film Editor: Tony Kearns and the Vocals and Fiddle of Seamie O’Dowd.
This film was made with the support of the Yeatsian Legacy Project, delivered by Sligo Arts Service and its partners, and supported by the PEACE III Programme managed for the Special EU Programmes Body by Sligo County Council on behalf of Sligo Peace and Reconciliation Partnership Committee and the Department of Environment, Heritage and Local Government Per Cent For Art Scheme.
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