DAVID KEENAN - FOCLA AR CHANBHÁS (WORDS ON CANVAS)
Saturday, March 1 • 4:30 PM • T2
Q&A with director Paddy Hayes and musician/actor David Keenan, moderated by Pete Danelski, Eaton DC. Screening also followed by a live music performance.
Documentary Feature | East Coast Premiere
Screening generously sponsored by Niall Leogue & Caddie Tours
Four years after the breakthrough success of his debut album "A Beginner's Guide to Bravery," Dundalk songwriter, musician and composer David Keenan is at a crossroads. After touring extensively and building a reputation as one of Ireland’s leading live performers, he returns to the studio to record new music. “Anger is easy to portray, it’s the hurt that’s hard,” David says, as the film explores his wordsmithing over the course of 500 days. This is a portrait of one artist as a young man, which in turn is a portrait of every musical artist as they endeavor to stand out in a world of “algorithm and blues,” while remaining authentically and powerfully true to themselves.
DIR Paddy Hayes; PROD Aisling Ní Fhlaithearta, Ailbhe Nic Dhonncha; CAST David Keenan. Ireland, 2024, color, 67 min. NOT RATED
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Please call 301-495-6720 between M-F, 9 AM - 5:30 PM or email silverinfo@AFI.com
Paddy Hayes is a documentary director and drama producer with 25 years experience in the entertainment industry. Hayes is currently exec producing season two of Obituary for Hulu, starring Siobhán Cullen and Máiréad Tyers, having initiated and produced season 1 in 2023. Hayes produced the award-winning feature film Foscadh, which was the Irish entry for the Best International Feature Film at the 2022 Academy Awards. Other drama works include teen comedy drama EIPIC and the award-scooping Corp & Anam (starring Maria Doyle Kennedy) which received multiple IFTA awards and garnered glowing acclaim on release on VoD in the US and in Europe.
David Keenan wrote the ode to his hometown of Dundalk on the Irish border “El Paso” at 14. Self educated and guided by his grandfather’s storytelling gift, songwriting has always been a full time vocation. After a number of self released EPs, his first album “A Beginner's Guide to Bravery" (2020) reached number 1 in the Irish indie Charts and was followed by the critically acclaimed second "WHAT THEN?" a year later. Other works include live album/concert film "Alchemy & Prose” and the d.i.y “CRUDE” records. With a reputation as a uniquely poetic singer-songwriter/storyteller and relentless live performer, he has toured consistently from a young age across Ireland, the UK, Europe, North America and Australia.
The Capital Irish Film Festival is supported by the Government of Ireland Emigrant Support Programme, Culture Ireland, Fís Éireann/Screen Ireland, Embassy of Ireland, Northern Ireland Bureau, Northern Ireland Screen, and the Irish Film Institute’s IFI International Programme supported by Culture Ireland. Solas Nua is supported by the DC Commission on the Arts & Humanities.
