The veteran Kevin McClory, who wrote the early Bond movies and Around the World in 80 Days and worked with John Huston, talked film with struggling Irish filmmakers, who bewildered the hotel in Charlottesville by not having credit cards. The program featured an exciting mix of screenings, major addresses, panel discussions, and special events. Participants celebrated and explored Ireland's ancient interest in storytelling through the relatively new and powerful language of film.
Gibbons anticipates a culturally unique cinema with international appeal.
Black is one of a group of trail-blazing film directors who independently gave birth to an indigenous Irish film culture in the late 1970s and early '80s. Others include the legendary Bob Quinn and Joe Comerford , both of whom joined some 40 Irish film makers, writers, and scholars who attended the Charlottesville conference. Hugh Linehan , Assistant Director on The Commitments and former editor of Film Ireland magazine, is a member of the younger generation of Irish filmmakers. Instead, his drama would explore a universal problem, whose Irish particulars were incidental, at most. The conference explored the challenge of filmmaking with a particular emphasis on the f ate of national and independent production.