Photo credit: Courtesy of Production
The Irish are known for their great writers, poets and story-tellers. Perhaps the best description of the Irish personality comes from the popular historian Carl Wittke: “The so-called Irish temperament is a mixture of flaming ego, hot temper, stubbornness, great personal charm and warmth, and a wit that shines through adversity. An irrepressible buoyancy, a vivacious spirit, a kindliness and tolerance for the common frailties of man.” All of these combine to make it all the more surprising that no one has ever before done a film before about the 1916 Easter Rising, “It’s the perfect medium for looking at the Irish story,” according to filmmaker Kevin McCann who is currently in pre-production of “The Rising” which tells that story. He too finds that void of Irish story telling about the rising to be strangely missing from historical Irish films that include Michael Collins starring Liam Neeson in the Neil Jordan movie which was made 20 years ago.
Director Kevin McCann
The 1916 Easter Rising was an armed insurrection in Ireland during Easter Week 1916 mounted by Irish republicans to end British rule in Ireland and establish an independent Irish Republic while the United Kingdom was heavily engaged in World War I. It was the most significant uprising in Ireland since the rebellion of 1798. So why hasn’t this story ever been captured on screen before?
“Well, there’s a couple of things,” McCann told Hollywood on the Potomac. “The 1916 Easter Rising was between the famine Ireland and free Ireland. It was a moment when the 1,000 or 1,500 men and women who were essentially enslaved by an empire, decided to rebel and it wasn’t a popular move at the time in the country. By the time they were executed the rebellion had lasted six years; and when they were executed, Ireland was never the same again. Within a few years, there was a new Irish Republic and it all stems from those actions of men and women who were influenced most by what happened in the United States and in what Washington did. They had a Proclamation of Independence which was very influenced by the Declaration of Independence here in the States, and they saw that here is a country that’s free from the British Empire and thought maybe we can do the same.”
Colin Broderick and Kevin McCann
“I started thinking about doing plays from a very early age. My father wrote and directed plays so I was influenced by that, I guess. I just produced one of his plays last year as a half hour drama and it has won eight international awards; it was about the troubles in the border region of Ireland at the time of the hunger strikes and now I am moving on to a full feature. Again, each of these dramas inform about the Irish questions. It’s not a question of being actually British or pro-Irish, it’s simply dramatizing the story of Ireland. Sometimes that story gets, as I said, misremembered or it’s told in a lie or it’s not real at all. I think our film is the perfect medium for looking at the real Irish story,” he explained on how he became interested in filmmaking.
“I was born in the North and raised from the South. I had a production company for 10 years and all of my work has to do with the North and the Irish question and even about feuds, the different feuds in Ireland as well, so that’s what I do. I produce films that inform me about who I am, where I come from.”
We were interested in the development phase of the films since Ireland is noted for giving a lot of film location bonuses. “The Irish Film Board has supported these developments and also Northern Ireland which is the film board in Belfast. It was Belfast that came forward to support me first and was only this year that the film board in Dublin has come forward as well as some local council support. In December of this year, we raised 50,000 euros in development funding from crowd sourcing, so we raised a lot of money from 35 different countries around the world which gave us the indication that there is a widespread interest in the telling of this rebellion story. The most remarkable thing about all of this is that in a 100 years, Ireland has never told the story of its captive nation on film before. There are countless reasons as to probably why that didn’t happen but maybe we can answer that.”
“Liam Neeson has read the script. We just actually met with him for the first time a few weeks ago and we were very surprised that he had actually read it. I want his son, who is 20, to play the lead role. Our networks are working very well and I’ve been in the States for most of the past 20 months networking with the industry here and also keeping up with the Irish-American community looking for executive producers and finance benefactors because without those, no movie can be made. Development of a movie can take anything from up to let’s say $100,000 to $200,000 to develop it, but to produce a period movie it looks like it would take from between at the lowest $5 million and at the highest, it’s probably $100 million. What we’re looking at right now is around $6 million and that’s enough money to produce it in high quality, but without having to undergo all the logistical difficulties of a $100 million-movie.”
“One of the crucial things is that next year is the 100-year anniversary of the rebellion and this film will be released to coincide with that rebellion. Millions of Irish and of Irish descent will be hearing about 1916, 1916, 1916 all over again next year and our movie will take full advantage of that free marketing. That is the intention – that we produce the two-hour movie that is the prequel to Michael Collins and the Wind that Shakes the Barley and tell that story for the first time. It takes about seven months to make a movie so I’ve been on this for over three years and I’m meeting with all of these different people in different cities and I believe that by the end of July I, I will have the finances to begin production in August.” Expect to see Kevin McCann around the Washington area beginning July 20th.
McCann and team
“It’s politically sensitive. It’s extremely politically sensitive. These are very difficult topics for the Irish to explore and discuss because of the effect of colonialism in Ireland which was a division amongst the people. Therefore, to look under that rock and explore the story is painful for some people but it has to be done. It really has to be done and maybe next time we can do the film on the Battle of the Boyne or a film on the famine, but we must create this opportunity, as I say, because it is happening on our watch. It is our responsibility to respond to our kind and to make a conscious and respectful and entertaining movie. What a fantastic opportunity it is for me as an artist, to meet all these people in the United States, talk about something that I’m passionate about. I’m so lucky. I’ve been very, very blessed, very fortunate and I understand fully that this is my responsibility as a human being on this earth to tell the story of the people of my land; and if I was from any other country, I would be doing it about their country, but I happen to be Irish and therefore, I am responding to that responsibility. I think that if this was any other country or culture, there would be a film about this already. Maybe there is something in the Irish psyche that we weren’t able to do it, but I think now is the time.”
As two of Ireland’s most popular old Irish blessings go: “May the road rise up to meet you.” “May the wind always be at your back.”
