Maurice O’ Carroll’s award-winning debut movie, Dead Along The Way, will have a limited theatrical release and will be officially launched in Cork Wednesday Dec 14th, at The Gate Cinema, Cork City. The film hopes to emulate the success of another homegrown film with strong Cork connections, Peter Foott’s The Young Offenders.
Made for a budget that consisted of favours from friends and good-will, the award-winning film had its World Premiere at this year’s Galway Film Fleadh, before opening this year’s IndieCork Film Festival. Both screenings sold out within hours and received rapturous applause, and the producers believe that it is very likely there will be another run on tickets for the December 14th screening.
In this Irish crime comedy, hapless wedding videographers Wacker and Tony find themselves unexpectedly dealing with a dead body, overly-enthusiastic Gardaí, fertility treatment, a vengeful gangster… oh, and an imminent wedding.
Dead Along The Way stars The Young Offenders actor, Ciarán Bermingham, Niall Murphy (Dracula Untold), Ben Condron (A Date For Mad Mary), and Tom Lawlor (Love/Hate).
With appropriate black humour, director Maurice O’Carroll notes that the film was made with:
No crowd- funding; no film board funds; no budget. No problem. French film maker, Jean-Pierre Melville said ‘your first feature film should be made with your own blood’ and I continue to give my blood to this film as we go down the self distribution road.
O’Carroll, who hails from Tralee, is also the film’s writer, editor, colourist and co-producer. He sees the film as proof that dreams can come true.
We were unknown filmmakers, and now here we are releasing our first film into the cinemas. And we screen right next door to Star Wars!
O’Carroll co-produced this along with his wife Elaine and Cork actor/producer Sinead O’Riordan of ORion Productions, adding to a string of projects the trio have collaborated on. O’Carroll has also written a 4 part tv series and another feature film so we can expect a lot more from these creatives in the near future.
In the words of Galway Film Fleadh Programmer Gar O’Brien:
Films like Dead Along the Way are a great example of the type of film-making that needs to be supported more in Ireland. Not funded in the traditional sense, the filmmakers went out and made the film they wanted to regardless.Normally this leads to compromises on production values and casting and so forth but here, seemingly carried by passion, Dead Along the Way gets the best out of a cast and crew who clearly believe in the project. As a first feature film it meshes comedy, pathos and violence (often at the same time) with an inspired brio that larger budget films would be lucky to achieve.
More cinemas and screening dates nationwide will be announced soon.