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Graduates of SETU Showcase Short Film at Toronto Lift Off festival

08/07/2022
Graduates of SETU Showcase Short Film at Toronto Lift Off festival

Sinead O’Quigley, Adam Hart, and Richard Deering are former South East Technological University (SETU) Students that studied TV and Media Production at SETU Carlow campus. Sinead, Adam, and Richard have produced, directed, and written a short dark comedy film called “Sonny, Mammy and Patch the Dog.” The film is currently running online on the Toronto Lift Off festival and will then feature at two more film festivals in London and New York.

Sinead and her production team began producing the short film in January 2021, but with the introduction of COVID restrictions in March, their schedule was delayed considerably. Sinead is delighted to have finally completed the short film, “I was the producer for the short, and it took us about 5 months of pre-production as we were shooting it during lockdown, so we were waiting for restrictions to be lifted a bit to make things easier on all of us while it was also being shot outside our full-time jobs.”

The short film takes place in a small village in Ireland. Sonny is the main protagonist along with his Mammy and Patch the Dog. Sonny leads a simple life. As the village’s resident gardener, he spends his days doing odd jobs and earning a modest wage. He is an innocent soul who cares only for 3 things: his Mammy, his dog Patch and having pints on payday. These 3 things keep him balanced. Sonny returns home one evening to a disheartening scene. From here, things take a turn for the worse for Sonny, his Mammy and Patch the Dog.

Sonny, Mammy and Patch the Dog is loosely based on a true story that Richard, the scriptwriter , had heard from stories in his hometown, “The film came about when Richard saw the Screen Wexford application and wrote the script based on tales he had heard while working in his family bar, so the film is kind of based on a true story! Adam and I read the script and immediately wanted to make it, so we were lucky to be awarded funding from Screen Wexford. It was made on a tiny budget, and it really came together as we had so many of our friends working with us and supporting us in so many ways, mostly because they just really liked the script and wanted to see this film happen.” said Sinead.