I felt very excited as the plane landed in Los Angeles Airport. It was my first time in LA so it felt fresh.
How was it, as a film-maker, I had never gone? Maybe I now had a reason as my new short film St Pancras Sunrise was showing at the Silicon Beach Film Festival and the fact it was being screened in the iconic Chinese Theatre made it seem like, if not now, when?
I would be staying with my Irish American cousin Brian Panish, who I’d met pre-pandemic when he happened to visit my mum’s house in Belfast when I was over. Our grandfathers were brothers from Westmeath and they had both moved to New York, though my grandfather had moved back because he missed Derry and Donegal.
I had experienced the Irish-American warmth in New York, but nothing quite prepared me for this generosity of spirit.
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Brian met me at the airport and almost as soon as I walked into the house, his wife Rosie was discussing the family tree and I ended up on a call with his sister.
This feeling of Irish connection is so deep, it reminded me of the London-Irish second-generation tradition. When I met Diana and Catherine, their daughters, I could see this pride carrying on to the next generation.
The opening festival party was great. I’ve always been dreamily inspired and fundamentally strengthened by the US independent film tradition and, for sure, none of my three features would have been made without it.
As a woman film director, who emerged at a time when women film directors simply weren’t supported, Mean Streets, Spanking the Monkey, Reservoir Dogs, Clerks showed there was a way. If you had been turned away by the financiers/studios, you could just make it yourself on credit cards and still do well.
The directors and producers were mostly guys also, but Coppola spoke of some fat girl in Ohio picking up a camera, ie women independent film directors doing it for themselves as well. I remember feeling excited. I just had to decide, let go and jump in a leap of faith.
The Silicon Beach Film Festival had that dynamic spirit and this short film had been made in that way. St Pancras Sunrise, a short film, is also proof of concept for a feature. It is about a young Irish woman, Blathnaid, arriving in King’s Cross in London to fulfil her dreams just as tensions between local sex workers and ECP (English Collective of Prostitutes) female activists and the police escalate. The film culminates in an event which sparked a global movement.
Though the characters are fictional/fictionalised, some from my own novella, the photos I found online were rousing. Talking of the brave and bold independent spirit – these women encapsulated that. Fiona Kinsella, the producer for Tile media, said she loved “hearing about women’s activism, as it isn’t just about talking but about doing which makes for good film stories”.
I wondered if those films are a form of women’s activism, as they elevate unknown women’s history into cultural history, making those stories central.
It seemed to me that Irish women abroad are often in the thick of it. Madeleine Casey, a Dublin woman living in London and programmer of London Breeze Film Festival, told me: “Paul, my partner and I had one of our first dates at a huge protest march against Section 28. We still go on marches.”
Back in tinsel town, makers of Erin Brockovich, where this fighting spirit was expressed commercially as well as brilliantly, “Me Too” was still on many LA people’s lips. How many sexual assaults were still hushed up, how much do we still not know, all those NDAs (non-disclosure agreements) signed.
Those film-star women had been seriously brave in opening that Pandora’s box, but people felt the story was still ongoing. As I looked at Shirley Temple’s “Love to you all” hand written on the Walk of Fame pavement, I felt happy and sad. I loved her child purity blasting through time in film star immortality, but I was sad about the price of all that, maybe not for her, but for many women, possibly men too.
[ From the archive: Erin Brockovich calls on Irish Water to publish toxin levelsOpens in new window ]
I can’t say I wasn’t immune to the glamour either. Brian’s family live in the beautiful Brentwood, a short way from Jennifer Garner’s home. While I was there, Ben Affleck was living just a few doors down, laying low from J Lo. I saw the removal van and also Maria Shriver get out of her car a few days later. Courtesy of Brian and one of his friends, I managed to get a tour of the Sony Lot and see where The Morning Show is filmed and the set of Jennifer Aniston’s flat.
I had a great time. The crowning moment came at the end when the festival announced my short film had won Best International Short.
I burst into song, swung round a lamp-post and sang Hooray for Hollywood!
- Maeve Murphy is a film-maker and author from Belfast. She went to Cambridge University in the mid-1980s to study English. She is the writer-director of three feature films, including Silent Grace, Taking Stock on Netflix, and Sushi. She lives in London with her husband Richard. St Pancras Sunrise will be screening with a Q&A at the London Breeze Film Festival on Saturday, October 26th at the Irish Cultural Centre Hammersmith.
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