Produced and directed by Liam Nolan, TG4, 2006.
Na Deoraithe (The Exiles) threads a past narrative - Donál MacAmhlaigh's 1960's autobiographical 'Diary of an Irish Exile' - with the experiences of three migrant workers living in Celtic Tiger Ireland.
I was 25 when I produced and directed this film and learnt a lot from making it. It was my first successful commission from a national broadcaster - TG4, the Irish-language channel. I pitched the idea as part of a TG4 young filmmaker's scheme which the channel commissioned me, giving me €10k to make the film. I made every cent count! I shot all the 'archive' b-roll of London myself on Super8mm in London, giving it the look of the 1960s. The main challenges were shooting in foreign languages and threading passages from the old narrative to work alongside the current day stories. In the edit, editor JP Shortt and I had to overcome the challenge of editing in multiple languages: Irish, Russian, Mandarin and Eritrean. This experience has always benefited me when shooting foreign-language interviewees and sequences.