The Digital Hub gives Dublin 8 over 60s the Hollywood treatment

  • Screen 8 working with over 60s to write, produce and shoot short film
  • Filmmaking programme now in its third year in partnership with Virgin Media Dublin International Film Festival
  • Waiting will premiere at the Light House Cinema on 25th February

Screen 8, a community-driven filmmaking programme for the people Dublin 8 and its surrounds, will screen its newest movie Waiting on February 25th as part of this year’s Virgin Media Dublin International Film Festival. Screen 8, which is a collaboration between The Digital Hub and the festival, has worked with local school children for the last 2 years.

This year it was the turn of the over 60s to get a taste of life behind the scenes and in front of the camera. 16 local residents from Dublin 8 comprised the cast and crew of Waiting, with an age range of 61 to 90.

Waiting explores the wholesome and sometimes antagonistic relationships of a local community who are often left to meet up in the local doctor’s surgery. Recalling friendships, rivalries and times gone by in a humorous take on what it means to grow older. Waiting explores themes including isolation, kinship and the practical impacts of gaining a few years through the unique sense of banter among Dublin 8’s over 60s.

Production was carried out despite the impact of Covid-19 with the group first meeting in late 2021, and the film was wrapped up over 12 weeks from November 1st to January 29th. Filming was carried out at The Digital Hub, across three days in January 2022.

Screen 8 was led this year by Paul Farren, an award-winning filmmaker who has worked with many groups all over Ireland teaching filmmaking through hands on film production; each encounter has resulted in original work from the various groups. His film work includes ‘where the sea used to be’ which won the Best Feature at the inaugural Fingal Film Festival in 2012 and a Van Gogh Award for Best First Time Feature Director at the 2012 Amsterdam Film Festival.

Fiach Mac Conghail, CEO of The Digital Hub, said:

“We value the creative engagement we have with Virgin Media DIFF as one of our companies at The Digital Hub. Our creative collaboration with them in supporting our Liberties community in telling their unique story through filmmaking is exciting. Some of our cast and crew are familiar to The Digital Hub through other programmes, including our D8 Surfers Club, so it is a privilege to see that sense of community translate to Screen 8.”

Gráinne Humphreys, Festival Director at Virgin Media Dublin International Film Festival, said:

“Screen 8, now in its third year, has been a tremendous success for both the festival but also the development of filmmaking in the Dublin 8 area. A switch to working with the over 60s from the area has added a new dynamic to the programme, one which I think will really shine through on screen.”

Kevin O’Kelly, who plays Kevin in Waiting, said:

“Waiting was a relatable and enjoyable experience right from the start and allowed us to tell the story of how important community is. The quality of the project really helped in calming our nerves and got us to deliver a short film which meant a lot to the cast and crew. I hope anyone who gets to watch Waiting will see a bit of their own community in it.”

Waiting is part of the festival’s Community series, and the film itself will premiere at the Light House Cinema on 25th February. See https://www.diff.ie/ for more details on pre-booking tickets.

ENDS
For more information:
• Andrew Smith, Murray | asmith@murraygroup.ie | 083 076 5717

About The Digital Hub
Based in the historic Liberties area of Dublin city centre, The Digital Hub is an enterprise cluster for growing technology companies. Thirty established businesses operate in The Digital Hub. Together these businesses employ approximately 290 people. The Digital Hub is the largest cluster of digital media, technology and internet businesses in Ireland, providing a space for indigenous enterprises such as Bizimply, Neuromod, Good Travel Software and Akara Robotics to scale and grow. Major global companies like Lonely Planet are also based in The Digital Hub.

Since the project’s inception, over 400 companies have progressed through the enterprise cluster at The Digital Hub, generating thousands of skilled jobs. Some well-established alumni include Amazon, Athena Media, Boomerang Pharmaceutical Communications, Distilled Media Group (Daft.ie), eMaint, Etsy, Havok, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (Riverdeep), Kavaleer, Lincor, MTT, patientMpower, Slack, Software AG, Silicon Republic, Square1, Stripe, TIBCO, VSware and Wachsman.

The Digital Hub is a supportive partner of the local community, by running several learning initiatives for people of all ages. Community learning programmes are run with local partners. For example, the Future Creators Cadets is delivered by H2 Learning and supported by National College of Art and Design (NCAD) and The Liber8 Music Project is run with BIMM Institute Dublin. The Digital Hub also works with community groups and organisations such as the Robert Emmet Community Development Project and Pocket Forests amongst others. The Digital Hub is one of three lead partners on the Smart D8 initiative which aims to improve and sustain the health and wellbeing of Dublin 8 citizens through innovation and collaboration.

The Digital Hub Development Agency is the Irish state agency that manages The Digital Hub. The Agency was established by the Irish Government under the Department of Communications, Climate Change and Environment.

In March 2021, the Government decided to dissolve the Digital Hub Development Agency and close The Digital Hub. The Agency will now embark upon an orderly winddown process which will see the transfer of lands to the Land Development Agency. All operations at The Digital Hub, including various community initiatives and partnerships, will continue as normal up until the closure date.

The Digital Hub is in a position to offer leases for new and existing companies up until 2025 following an agreement with the Department of Communications, Climate Change and Environment.

Further information is available at: www.thedigitalhub.com or on Twitter: @TheDigitalHub.

About Screen 8
The Digital Hub and the Virgin Media Dublin International Film Festival piloted Screen8 in May 2018 as an intensive but fun introduction to the possibilities of working in the film industry for 14-to-16-year olds living in Dublin 8. The out-of-school programme was designed to give young people an opportunity to be creative and gain experience in a variety of filmmaking roles — from scriptwriting and shooting to directing and movie editing. The group worked collaboratively on the production of a short film under the supervision of an Irish filmmaker. In 2021, The Digital Hub and the Virgin Media Dublin International Film Festival decided to run Screen8 for older people in the community – those aged 60 years and older. This cohort of people will get to experience a taste of filmmaking and work with a professional filmmaker to create their own short film. The process will challenge and engage older people in a creative and fun project.

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