North Clare production company, Ballycartoon Productions recently screened their latest short-film at the Charlie Chaplin Comedy Film Festival.
Founded by Dermot Petty in 2015, the production company is now preparing for its October showing of ‘The Only Punk Rocker in the Village’ at Lisdoonvarna. The play received positive reports at an arts festival in North Devon, England over the summer months.
Ballycartoon Productions’ ‘The Waiting Is Over’ also garnered applause down in Kerry at the film festival held in honour of one of the film industry’s most historic and important figures, Charlie Chaplin.
Shot in a single afternoon at Lough Bunny in the Burren, the short film drew inspiration from Samuel Beckett’s ‘Waiting for Godot’. “The premise is that Godot arrives and what happens, it’s an absurd comedy. The landscape of the Burren was really good there because there are no trees, it was very post-apocalyptic. It has done really well, it has played at a couple of festivals and has been very well received. It was just shot over one afternoon and we’re very happy with it,” Dermott explained.
Doolin’s Dermott stars in ‘The Waiting Is Over’ alongside Corofin native James Raleigh, Fanore’s Michael Canavan, Joan O’Hanrahan of Kilfenora and Keith Bogue from Limerick. Cratloe’s Philip Shanahan is the Director of Photography.
A number of projects are currently in the pipeline for Ballycartoon including feature film ‘Time Travel and the Leaving Cert’ which will be set between Doolin and Lisdoonvarna.
On Friday night, Petty combined with O’Hanrahan once again as part of Culture Night. Doolin hosted ‘Body of Water’, a segment of a new Electro Acoustic Opera set in Doolin in 1968 when a body of a young woman comes ashore. The music was by Barry Dillon with the book and lyrics by Joan O’Hanrahan and Dermott Petty, the duo also include film and photography for the opera.