Sé Merry Doyle

The Uncle Jack

John T. Davis, Sé Merry Doyle

The Uncle Jack (1996) is Davis' most autobiographical work to date. It is the fascinating story of Jack McBride Neill, the Ulster cinema architect who in the 1930s and 1940s was to design some 16 cinemas in Northern Ireland. McBride Neill was also Davis's Uncle Jack and the man who was to rouse his passion for the art of film-making.

John Ford: Dreaming the Quiet Man

Sé Merry Doyle

Gabriel Byrne, Maureen O'Hara

Dreaming the Quiet Man’ includes interviews with aficionados of Ford like, Martin, Scorsese, Peter Bogdanovicz, Jim Sheridan, William Dowling, and Joe McBride. There is mesmeric archive and rare photographs of the making of the film. The main location of the documentary is Ford’s ancestral homeland of Connemara, on the west coat of Ireland, where his parents were born. We meet Ford’s cousins, the Feeney’s who tell the story of Ford’s parent’s departure from Ireland after the Great Famine and the young Ford’s return to Ireland in 1922 to visit his cousins the Thornton’s and saw their house being burned down by the infamous Black and Tans. Ford, under the pretense of scouting locations for a movie, gave money to the IRA. We travel to Portland Maine where Ford grew up and went on to become a director in the first bloom of Hollywood. The boy made it good but Ireland was always on his mind.

Jimmy Murakami: Non-Alien

Sé Merry Doyle

Jimmy T. Murakami

A documentary film about acclaimed filmmaker Jimmy T. Murakami and his emotional return to Tule Lake concentration camp in America.

Alive Alive O: A Requiem for Dublin

Sé Merry Doyle

Alive Alive O – A Requiem for Dublin chronicles the heroes and the ever-changing heart of Dublin over a seven-year period. During this time, Merry Doyle’s lens captures the colourful characters of the city by focusing on Dublin street traders and their daily hustle and bustle. This invaluable record of vanished communities also depicts a city fighting to retain its soul in the midst of boom-time redevelopment. A young U2 play a benefit concert on Sheriff Street, maverick politician Tony Gregory fights the closure of Moore Street market and Dubliners (many of whom have since passed away) recall memories of a different city.