1x70 Min Feature Version & 1x54 Min Documentary
Format: Digibeta
Funders: RTÉ, History Canada
A spectacular journey through the Arctic, as an Irish expedition shadows one of most tragic stories in polar history
The story of the extraordinary Franklin expedition which sailed into the Arctic in search of a Northwest Passage and disappeared without a trace.
Awards:
Winner: Best Adventure Doc – Banff Mountain Film Festival
1x70 Min Feature Documentary & 2x52 Min Series / Format: Digibeta
Funders: RTÉ
Roger Casement served the British Government, was knighted, turned Irish rebel and was executed all within the space of just ten years. His life and reputation was destroyed by a set of homosexually explicit diaries which many claim are British forgeries. This film tells Casement's extraordinary story and features the only modern forensic investigation of the 'Black Diaries', which was co-funded by Crossing
the Line Films.
Awards:
Winner - Best Documentary Series – Irish Film & Television Awards 2003
Winner - Best Feature Documentary- Celtic Film and Television Festival
2x40 Min Series / Format: Digibeta
Funders: RTÉ
Ireland’s best known news correspondent explores one of the most enchanting rivers on the planet
Charlie Bird heads for India and the mighty and sacred River Ganges. From sea to source, Charlie battles from the Bay of Bengal to the mighty Himalaya along a river that defines this wakening economic giant - a nation fast becoming one of the 21st centuries great superpowers. An explosion of colour, people, culture and history lies on his 2500km journey upstream. As he travels to the heart of India and the limits of his own endurance, Charlie seeks to uncover how the fabled mysticism of the Indian people marries with a country going through an explosive economic transformation.
1x52 Min / Format: Digibeta
Funders: RTÉ
On a truly epic journey, Charlie Bird crosses South America from ocean to ocean, tracing the course of the world’s mightiest river – the Amazon.
En route he tells the story of the greatest wilderness on the planet and how more than ever before this region plays a pivotal role in the biggest challenge now facing human beings - global warming & environment change. The millions of square miles of Amazon rainforest are the most important real estate on earth – soaking up the gases spewed out by a world hell bent on consumption at all costs. After years of growing alarm, it is now recognised by most of the world’s leading thinkers, that the environment will be the story of the 21st century.
The Journey of the Qashqa'i
1x47 Min / Format: Digibeta / National Geographic Version
Funders: National Geographic International, TG4, Irish Film Board
With unprecedented access to one of the most secretive countries on Earth, this film follows Bezad, a charismatic Qashqa’i nomad on a spectacular journey across Iran.
Iran once had the biggest population of nomads in the world, now Bezad is one of the very last nomads still living this extraordinary way of life. His life is hard, he walks the mountains all day, sleeps little and spends every nights under the stars, yet his good humour and supreme confidence never falter.
The Journey of the Nenets
1x47 Min / Format: Digibeta / National Geographic Version
Funders: National Geographic International, TG4, Arte, Irish Film Board
This film follows the Serrotettas, a family of Nenet reindeer herders of Northern Siberia, on what is undoubtedly the greatest nomadic migration left on earth - a gruelling 1600 mile journey across the tundra to the shores of the Arctic Ocean.
Shot over four months in northern Siberian this film gives rare insight into a difficult and ancient way of life now on the verge of extinction.
The Caravan from Bilma
1x47 Min / Format: Digibeta / National Geographic Version
Funders: National Geographic International, TG4, Irish Film Board
A magnificent journey along the most traditional camel caravan route left in the Sahara, an 800 mile trek across Niger.
This one-hour film follows Al Haj Alhassan, an old Tuareg caravaneer on his last journey across the Sahara, travelling one of the last remaining desert trade routes in West Africa: the salt run of Bilma.
6 x 25 Min Series / Format: Digibeta & HD
Funders: RTÉ
Wildlife photography challenge series for well-known Irish personalities
For the fourth series of Wild Trials the series takes a more exciting and adventurous twist and goes back in time to look at some of the extraordinary animals that once roamed the Irish countryside. With little or no photographic experience, all have one week in some of the wildest areas of the world to track down and photograph some of our most spectacular and endangered wildlife. This years series sees Pat Spillane rambling the remote woodlands of Romania in search of the Brown bear, Des Cahill caving in Cork and camping in Kenya to find the Spotted Hyena, Lucy Kennedy setting sail to capture a shot of one of the world's rarest whales, Brian Kennedy travelling the fjords of Norway to photograph the majestic White-Tailed eagle and Mary McEvoy leaving the stage on the trail of the elusive and aggressive Wild Boar. The winner heads to South Africa to swim with Great White Sharks.
Awards:
Finalist - Best Factual Entertainment Series – Irish Film & Television Awards
8x25 Min / Format: Digibeta & HD
Funders: RTÉ
Wildlife photography challenge series for well-known Irish personalities
Celebrities have one week to become a wildlife photographer. This third series sees rugby pundit and broadcaster George Hook off to Glenveagh National Park to photograph the magnificent Golden Eagles, singer Johnny Logan goes camping on the islands of Donegal in search of badgers, Newsman Charlie Bird is on the tracks of wild mink on Galway's Lough Corrib, TV Presenter Shauna Lowry chases fallow deer bucks up the mountains in the rutting season, Actress Rosaleen Linehan is up all night getting pictures of elusive barn owls, Retired politician and bookmaker Ivan Yates spends a week cruising the
Shannon photographing dragonflies and actress Sheila McWade is driven nuts trying to photograph very nifty and agile red squirrels. The best photograph sees the winner travel to Yellowstone National Park to photograph wolves in the wild.
Awards:
Finalist - Wildscreen 2006
Finalist - Best Factual Entertainment Series – Irish Film & Television Awards
6x25 Min / Format: Digibeta
Funders: RTÉ
Wildlife photography challenge series for well-known Irish personalities
Celebrities have one week to become a wildlife photographer. This series sees TV Presenter Liz Bonnin wreck-diving off the North coast of Antrim in search of conger eels, Senator David Norris is put to the test photographing Dublin's urban foxes, Kathryn Thomas goes snorkling around Achill island to swim with the world's second largest fish, the basking shark, singer/songwriter Mickey Harte goes climbing around the sea-cliffs of Co. Kerry to try and get near to Ireland's largest seabird colony, the gannet colony of the Skelligs and finally actress and singer Bronagh Gallagher is camping out in Clew Bay to
photograph one of Ireland's most elusive mammals, the otter. For the winner the prize of a lifetime is a trip to central India and the chance to photograph some of the last wild tigers in the world.
Awards:
Finalist - Best Factual Entertainment Series – Irish Film & Television Awards
6x25 Min / Format: Digibeta
Funders: RTÉ
Wildlife photography challenge series for well-known Irish personalities
Celebrities have one week to become a wildlife photographer. Actor Don Wicherley camps on the windswept Inishkea islands off County Mayo to photograph grey seal pups in mid- November, Government Minister Conor Lenihan stalks the majestic red deer of Killarney National Park during the rutting season, Radio DJ and broadcaster Ray D'Arcy spends a week at sea off the south coast of Ireland photographing the world's second largest whale, the fin whale, TV presenter and actress Carrie Crowley spends many late nights in the Burren pursuing the elusive pine marten and finally Climber & Explorer Pat Falvey is hanging out in the caves and souterrains of Kerry to photograph bats in flight. The final programme sees the winner off on the trip of a lifetime to Rwanda where they have one week to photograph some of the last wild mountain gorillas in the world.
Awards:
Finalist - Best Factual Entertainment Series – Irish Film & Television Awards
FRANKLIN: TÁSC IS TUAIRISC
2x52 Min Series
Format: HD
Funders: TG4, Irish Film Board, ZDF, Five, ARTE, History Canada, History UK, MEDIA
Mountaineer and writer Dermot Somers travels to the Arctic and recounts the extraordinary story of the lost Franklin expedition and the remarkable Irish characters & connections to the polar regions.
2x52 Min Series / Format: HD / TG4 Version
Funders: TG4, National Geographic International, Irish Film Board
Dermot Somers follows a family of Buddhist yak herders on a breathtaking three month
journey across the roof of the world. After travelling with Nenets reindeer people across the frozen plains of Northern Siberia and crossing the Sahara with one of the last true camel caravans, the fourth film in the ‘Turas I mbaol’ series sees presenter, Dermot Somers, follow a family from their homes on the High Tibetan Plateau to the lowland valleys of Southern Nepal through Dolpo - a small and inaccessible kingdom which for centuries has remained almost entirely cut off from the outside world.
2x52 Min Series / Format: Digibeta / TG4 Version
Funders: TG4, National Geographic International, Irish Film Board, MEDIA
Dermot Somers, travelling by reindeer sled with a family of nomads, heads deep into Northern Siberia on the greatest traditional journey left on earth.
Every year, an irrepressible bunch of Siberian natives, the Nenets, travel by reindeer from their winter forest homes, 800 kms north to the Arctic Ocean and back. The journey is the last of its kind. Possessing the most intact culture left in the Arctic, the Nenets live in tents of reindeer skin, eat raw reindeer meat and travel on handmade wooden sleds.
Awards: Winner - Spirit of the Festival Award Winner Celtic Film Festival 2003
Finalist – Banff Mountain Film Festival
2x52 Min Series / Format: Digibeta / TG4 Version
Funders: TG4, National Geographic International, Irish Film Board
Writer & climber Dermot Somers travels by camel across the Sahara with one of the very last remaining Tuareg caravans still trading in the desert.
From the remote Oasis of Bilma, their extraordinary journey takes them across some of the most spectacular desert landscapes in Africa before reaching the colourful market towns that fringe the great desert. They are carrying a precious mineral that could once be traded for its own weight in gold...they are carrying salt.
2x52 Min Series / Format: Digibeta / TG4 Version
Funders: TG4, National Geographic International, Irish Film Board
Irish writer and mountaineer, Dermot Somers, travels with a group of nomads on a spectacular mountain journey across Iran.
Dermot’s hosts are a family of shepherds and they travel 400 kms on foot across a forgotten corner of this extraordinary country. Stunning landscapes and a forgotten tribe reveal aspects of Iranian life almost never seen in the west. To shoot this series, the film crew had almost unprecedented access to one of the most secretive countries on Earth.
Songwriters and the Songs they write
6x25 Min Series / Format: Digibeta
Funders: RTÉ
Presented by broadcaster and musician Tom Dunne, this series goes behind the stars and razzmatazz to explore with songwriters their experiences of writing and producing songs - hits that changed their lives and duds that never graced a radio wave.
The series explores the origins of their best-known work - how the idea or the melody came about, how the most unpromising tune suddenly clicked into place and turned a tuneless dirge into something people hum every day in the streets. The series delves into the mechanics of pop, rock and roll and reveals some of the secrets of popular song writing, exposing the business and the technical skill and hours of work necessary for success and also how often the elusive elements of luck and coincidence come into play.
1 x 5 Min Short / Format: HD
Funders: RTÉ Dance on the Box
With stunning dance scenes, dramatic lighting, and a dream like narrative on love and dance, this film captures the beauty of Swing in a breathtaking 5 minute Jazz whirlwind.
1x52 Min / Format: Digibeta
Funders: History Canada, History UK, RTÉ International & Irish Film Board.
One of the most indestructible heroes in the history of Antarctic exploration. Crean's astonishing life story is told using a wealth of photographic and film archive and interviews with family members and leading polar historians, including Reinhold Messner and Ranulph Fiennes.
Awards:
Best Adventure Film Winner Graz Film Festival, Austria
1x54 Min / Format: Digibeta
Funders: TG4, History Canada, RTÉ International & MEDIA
This is the "behind the scenes" story of the two greatest figures of polar exploration - Robert Falcon Scott & Ernest Shackleton. "Rivals For The Pole" digs deep into the bitter rivalry which existed between these two fascinating personalities and explores the jealousies, intrigue and adventure that marked the final chapter in the great age of exploration.
Awards:
Finalist – Best Documentary – Irish Film & Television Awards
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