Projects matching: Mary Mcguckian

Synopsis

Set during the Cannes Film Festival, The Making of Plus One packs a punch and pokes more than a little fun at the celebrity obsession fuelling the modern day film industry, full of fads, festival red carpets, creatively incongruous commerciality and artistic dispensability in the far from glamorous reality that is independent feature filmmaking.

Synopsis

In a climate of rapid technological advance in the fast booming baby business, perhaps a little pause for thought is required on behalf of the patients. Couples with infertility issues, biological clock challenged career women, and the gay community to name some can now achieve the previously inconceivable and are prepared to pay a high price for potential failure. Exploring a week in the life a typical 'cycling' batch of women and their donors preparing to undergo Assisted Reproductive Technology treatments at a progressive private clinic in the USA, the film asks 'what if...' What if - something entirely medically conceivable went amiss? If the architects of ART went the way that any successful artist might - and lost the run of themselves? Are not the baby designers of the future in danger of becoming the architects not only of their own downfall, but potentially tolling the death knell to the survival of our species?

Synopsis

It's a mad world - so who's to say who or what is crazy? Out of order? Or not normal?  Where do we draw the fine line between what is 'funny mad' or just 'plain insane'? When does a disorder define as dysfunctional?
Funny Farm turns the commonly-held concept of what is unacceptably 'crazy' on its hilarious head - and enlightens the world of rehabilitation, relapse and recovery with a little laughter, debunking the Anglo-American culture of 'therapy' along the way.

Synopsis

A contemporary urban satire set during a week in the life of a tabloid newspaper. Its tyrannical tycoon chairman and clever but desperate editor (who is also sleeping with the chairman's wife) battle for political supremacy in the boardroom, using staff journalists as pawns in the power-games they play out on the front pages of the press. Set against the backdrop of the US election and the current celebrity culture, Rag Tale gives a witty, behind-the-scenes look at the tabloids.

Synopsis

When The Bridge of San Luis Rey breaks, five travellers are precipitated into the gulf below. Was it chance or the hand of God that brought these five together at that fatal time in that place? Or were they in some way responsible, themselves, for what happened? These questions are raised with uncynical compassion and answered by Wilder with an indirect affirmation of the power of love.
 
Set in early 18th century Peru at the height of the Spanish Inquisition, this timeless story of delicately interwoven lives traverses worlds as diverse as the theatres, convents, brothels and docks of Lima, Peru to the sea-faring explorations, scientific institutions and courts of Madrid, Spain.
 
'Soon, we too shall die and all memory of those five will have left the earth, and we ourselves shall be loved for a while and forgotten, there is a land of the living and a land of the dead, and the bridge is love,
the only survival, the only meaning.' (Thornton Wilder, 1927)

Synopsis

George Best could play football like no one else. As a working-class boy in East Belfast, he was spotted by a Manchester United talent scout and at 15 joined the prestigious English team. He arrived in Manchester in 1961 a shy, naïve boy to join Matt Busby's squad. Busby immediately recognised his brilliance and the pair formed a tempestuous but strong and loyal bond that was to become a truly significant influence on Best's life.

Professional acclaim was swift and unprotected. Soon dubbed the golden boy of Manchester United, George's privacy was gone. The press gorged themselves on tales of the outstanding footballer's professional and private life. Scoring goals, scoring with women and earning himself a reputation on and off the pitch.

But as his fame and fortune grew, personal pride and satisfaction eluded him. He turned to drink to block out the dissatisfaction he felt from the game and his personal relationships. The media turned on him for wantonly throwing his chance away, reporting the walkouts, the failed relationships, drunken binges, fights and humiliations; forgetting the enigmatic, brilliant sporting artist they had previously showered with praise.

Redemption only arrived when he came to terms with his past and found peace with himself.