James Fitzgerald’s (Skunky Dog, The Invisible Boy) latest short film Bad Boy Buck will premiere at the 34th Galway Film Fleadh. The film screens on Saturday, July 9th as part of the Screen Ireland-funded shorts programme in the Town Hall Theatre at 12pm.
After a one-night stand with another man, a married farmer attempts to hide the affair from his family as the truth drives him to his breaking point.
Bad Boy Buck stars Diarmaid Murtagh (Vikings, Against the Ice, ) as Buck, Kelly Gough (The Fall, Casualty) as Gail, and Danish actor Tue Lunding (We Are All Leaving,) as Orm. Casting is by Amy Rowan.
The film is produced by Simon James Doyle of Failsafe Films, with David Grennan (What Richard Did, The Fall, Maze) as Director of Photography, Stephen Rennicks (Frank, Normal People) as composer, Steve Kingston (Detainment) as production designer, Sarah Flanagan (Wave) is costume designer, and Eoin McGuirk (The Delinquent Season) as editor.
Tickets can be purchased here.
My previous short, “The Invisible Boy” won the Tiernan McBride, Best Short Film category in 2020, during lockdown. It was such a huge honour, but I never got to see the film on a big screen with a live audience. So myself, producer Simon James Doyle and the rest of the team are super excited to be taking, Bad Boy Buck to the 34th Galway Film Fleadh this summer. Partly because we’ll experience it with an audience there. This film means a tremendous amount to everyone that worked tirelessly on it, so I can’t wait to share it with the world.
At its core, Bad Boy Buck is a story about a man coming to terms with his sexuality. Like my previous two shorts, Skunky Dog, and The Invisible Boy, this film takes the form of another dark rural drama. However, I wanted to inject tones of horror genre into this story, and use this an allegory for how the main character is feeling internally.
Masculinity in rural Ireland is something I’ve always been interested in. Being a lad who grew up in a small country village. It’s a world I know very well.
This film tells the story of one man, who’s so incarcerated emotionally and sexually that he drives himself to breaking point. His wife wanting to bring another child into the world is really the spark that lights the fire. He’s struggling from the beginning. This is a man who’s bottled up his identitysince childhood. Bad Boy Buck, is an extreme artistic expression of a man’s journey to finding his true self. It’s unique take on the sexual identity crisis story. The story shows how bottling up your true nature isn’t a good thing. It’s important to be who you are.
James Fitzgerald, Writer/Director