A MOVING yet unsentimental documentary about family, loss and moving on has won the prestigious Radharc Trust Award for best Irish documentary film.
Debut director Tanya Doyle's autobiographical film, The House, shot in the days before the family home in Clondalkin was sold, documents her family's experience growing up in west Dublin with an ailing mother and absent father.
The documentary, broadcast on RTÉ last year and produced by Daniel Hegarty of Marmalade Productions, was described by the judges as a “deeply original portrayal of an embattled family”.
The chairwoman of the five-member judging panel, broadcaster Leila Doolan, saluted the “heroism and bravery of the filmmaker for gathering together again all the family into the house to remember what had happened to them there”.
The biennial awards, which honour the late Father Joe Dunn – co-founder of the Radharc documentary series on RTÉ, saw a record 41 entries this year.
A highly commended award went to RTÉ's recent four-part documentary Music Changes Livesby Bill Hughes and Bernadine Carraher, which examined how music had transformed the lives of pupils at two Dublin primary schools.
