An assembly of selected Civic Life films, including the award-winning Who Killed Brown Owl and Joy
This tour is built on the distinctive and compelling body of work that has informed the making of Christine Molloy and Joe Lawlor’s critically acclaimed debut feature Helen.
Since 2003 Molloy and Lawlor have been working on a unique and richly cinematic series of short films made in negotiation with local residents and community groups. At the centre of the work is the relationship these communities have to the environments in which they live and work. With Civic Life Molloy and Lawlor have generated a meditative and visually arresting body of work that is both theatrical and cinematic, experimental and highly accessible. All of the Civic Life films are shot on 35mm cinemascope making extensive use of the long take and involving largely non-professional casts made up of volunteers from the local communities.
Although each film has its own distinct qualities, arguably their real emotional power is only fully realised when they are seen together. For the Civic Life tour the selected films have been edited together without titles or credits and the resulting uncertainty, as to when one films ends and another begins, serves to draw out and intensify the overlapping themes of identity and place, belonging, hope, loss, and new beginnings.
The Civic Life tour is supported by the National Lottery through Arts Council England.
In this collection
Daydream
Dir: Christine Molloy & Joe Lawlor | UK | 2007 | Colour | 35mm | 1:2.35 | 29 mins
A highly poetic and meditative work tracing the connection between a city during a moment of great change, and how this moment is reflected in the emotional world of its citizens as they contemplate their lives at a particularly vulnerable juncture, caught between past and future and in a sea of transformation.
Who Killed Brown Owl
Dir: Christine Molloy & Joe Lawlor | UK | 2004 | Colour | 35mm | 1:2.35 | 9 mins 23 secs
A sunny afternoon in an enchanted corner of England. In Who Killed Brown Owl, the perfect English arcadia gives way to varying kinds of misfortune, disruption and violence. With references to the paintings of art masters including Bruegel, this spectacular single-take short depicts a lazy Sunday that goes horribly wrong. Filmed over the course of one afternoon, Who Killed Brown Owl features a volunteer cast of almost 100 residents of the London Borough of Enfield.
Twilight
Dir: Christine Molloy & Joe Lawlor | UK | 2005 | Colour | 35mm | 1:2.35 | 5 mins 20 secs
The fourth film in the Civic Life series in which desperate optimists look into the hopes and fears of the disparate communities upon which they turn their lens. Shot on a boat on the Tyne against the spectacular backdrop of the seven Tyne Bridges, Twilight is an intimate exploration of the ebb and flow of life for five residents of Tyneside.
Town Hall
Dir: Christine Molloy & Joe Lawlor | UK | 2005 | Colour | 35mm | 1:2.35 | 10 mins 35 secs
Filmed on the 29 May 2005 in the stunning surrounds of West Bromwich Town Hall with the involvement of over 200 local residents. The camera takes a restless, sweeping look at the issues that matter to the assembled local residents.
Leisure Centre
Dir: Christine Molloy & Joe Lawlor | UK / Ireland | 2005 | Colour | 35mm | 1:2.35 | 17 mins 40 secs
Leisure Centre follows a young man through the rooms and down the corridors of the leisure centre where he works as he struggles to come to terms with his new role as a father. It is his partner, the mother of his child, who helps him to open his eyes and imagine a better future for him and his young family.
Joy
Dir: Christine Molloy & Joe Lawlor | UK | 2008 | Colour | 35mm | 1:2.35 | 9 mins
17-year-old Joy has gone missing. The police stage a reconstruction of her last known movements in a local park that gradually becomes a wider meditation on the fragility of youth.
Winner of the Prix UIP Rotterdam at the IFFR 2008.
Moore Street
Dir: Christine Molloy & Joe Lawlor | Ireland | 2004 | Swahili / English | Colour | 35mm | 1:2.35 | 5 mins 45 secs
A single tracking shot filmed on Dublin’s iconic Moore Street with members of the Dublin-based African production company Arambe. A continuation of Molloy and Lawlor’s fascination with changing urban terrains, it follow a young African woman in Ireland as she considers her future, and her fluctuating sense of identity.
Tiong Bahru
Dir: Christine Molloy & Joe Lawlor | UK / Singapore | 2010 | Colour | 35mm | 1:2.35 | 19 mins 28 secs
Following three people of different ages over the course of one afternoon as they reach a crucial decision in their lives, Tiong Bahru is a lyrical and thoughtful short film that explores ideas of belonging, place and family. Filmed on beautiful 35mm cinemascope in the hawker centre and market of the heritage estate of Tiong Bahru in Singapore, Tiong Bahru features a cast of over 150 local volunteers.