THE CRY OF GRANUAILE - LA Premiere! Star Dale Dickey in person!

The Philosophical Research Society is proud to present the LA premiere of award winning Irish filmmaker Dónal Foreman’s bold new film THE CRY OF GRANUAILE, a genre-defying blend of psychodrama and fantasy! We are honored to also welcome the film’s star Dale Dickey in person for a Q&A with the creators (with Foreman joining us live “via satellite”) of this fascinating film!

Filmed on lush 16mm film and starring Dale Dickey – the beloved character actor known for her roles in Winter’s Bone, Breaking Bad, True Blood and countless other films and series, appearing here in one of her first leading roles – and Judith Roddy (Derry Girls), The Cry of Granuaile follows a grieving American filmmaker and her Irish assistant on a tour of the west of Ireland as they research a film about Irish folklore icon Granuaile (aka Grace O'Malley aka Gráinne Ní Mháille aka the Dark Lady of the Isles), the legendary 16th century rebel and pirate queen. The two women develop an uneasy intimacy as they journey towards the remote Clare Island, where boundaries begin to blur between past and present, myth and history, dream and reality.

Written, directed, produced, and edited by Foreman, whose documentary The Image You Missed (2019) was named as one of the 50 best Irish films ever made by The Irish Times, The Cry of Granuaile is a singular ambitious work that balances heartfelt drama, surreal experimentation, and a playful sense of humor and absurdity, and has been hailed by critics as “fascinating and intoxicating”, "truly unclassifiable", and "one of the most unique films in many years".

Mostly filmed on location on the gorgeous Clare (population 165) and Achill Islands, it is the first feature film interpretation of a legendary icon of Irish history. Remembered through the centuries mostly through folk legend, nationalist ballads and the occasional literary re-interpretation (from 19th century English swashbuckling novels to a passage of James Joyce’s Finnegan’s Wake), there has been a resurgence of interest in Granuaile in the past few decades. She has been the subject of countless plays, songs, novels, comic books...even a Broadway musical. In The Cry of Granuaile, Foreman takes a sidelong glance at the character, playfully reinventing and deconstructing the stories we have told ourselves about her, and in the process exploring the ways in which we try to reclaim the past and make it speak to, or for, us. The carefully researched film draws on a wealth of archival sources concerning both Granuaile and her former territory, many of which are quoted or featured in the film in one way or another - from 16th century state documents to a 120 year old geological survey of Clare Island to the 1930s photography of American heiress Helen Hooker. The ideas and musings of Cáit (Judith Roddy) and Maire (Dale Dickey) are inspired in part by the writings of psychoanalysts, feminist historians, Joycean scholars and silent film pioneers. In the last third of the film, much of the characters’ dialogue is in fact borrowed from literary sources: including 18th century ballads & poems, 19th century romance novels, the memoirs of civil war veteran Ernie O’Malley, and even from Granuaile herself (maybe) - from a series of petitions written in her name to the English Crown in the late 1500s.

Join us for the LA premiere (and sole theatrical screening in Los Angeles) of this fresh and fascinating film, and stick around for a sure to be wonderful Q&A with director Dónal Foreman and star Dale Dickey!

Dir. Dónal Foreman, 2022, Ireland, 82mins, Unrated, English, Digital.

ABOUT DONAL FOREMAN

Dónal Foreman is an Irish filmmaker living between Dublin and New York City. He has written and directed three features and dozens of shorts. The Irish Times has called him “one of Ireland's most imaginative cinematic talents”, and his films have been praised in The Hollywood Reporter, Sight & Sound, The Guardian, Film Comment and Filmmaker Magazine, and streamed on MUBI and The Criterion Channel. He has been nominated twice for the Irish Film & TV Academy Awards and presented with the Discovery Award from the Dublin Film Critics Circle in 2014. His most recent feature, The Cry of Granuaile, won awards for Best Score and Best Performance at BAFICI in Buenos Aires, and Best Narrative Feature at the Montana International Film Festival. His previous feature, The Image You Missed, premiered at Rotterdam and went on to screen at over 40 festivals across 20 countries including Edinburgh, CPH:DOX and the Viennale, receiving nine awards as well as theatrical releases in Ireland, the UK, the US, Greece and Mexico. The Irish Times recently declared it one of the 50 best Irish films ever made.

More info at: donalforeman.com

ABOUT DALE DICKEY

Dale Dickey is an American actress who has had a distinguished career in theatre, film, and television, with more than 125 credits to her name. Dickey won the Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting Female for her performance opposite Jennifer Lawrence in the 2010 independent drama Winter’s Bone. She is best known for her character roles in a number of mainstream and independent films by directors including Debra Granik, Sean Penn, Clint Eastwood, Tony Scott and JJ Abrams - and for recurring performances in television shows such as My Name Is Earl, Breaking Bad, True Blood and the upcoming A League of Their Own. Other TV guest roles have included The X-Files, Frasier, Gilmore Girls and Grey’s Anatomy.

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