Bob Quinn

Cinegael is an independent cinema set up by filmmaker Bob Quinn in the 1970's, in which his son, the director Robert Quinn, lived as a child. The film focuses on the contribution the cinema made to the cultural life of the community, but also to the Irish film industry itself, acting as a home for, and catalyst to, radical ideas and attitudes within the film industry at the time.

Profiles veteran Irish photographer, Colman Doyle, who has documented almost every major historical event in Ireland over a 50 year period.

A precursor to Reefer and the Model, Waterbag involves the relationship between two fishermen and a pregnant woman, and ends with an apparently self-induced miscarriage.

Bob Quinn's 'Bog Graffiti' explores the relationship between humankind and nature, addressing the issue of climate change. Bob Quinn said: 'To paint images on granite rocks in the wet and windy landscape of Conamara would seem to be a folly. Foolishness also to plant saplings on the same bogscape – it is four thousand years since the place was fully clothed in trees. But then to turn the wood into grotesque figures must be considered perverse. Or perhaps a parable? We are part of the cycle of the natural world. This film notes the passing beauty of a tiny planet before we destroy it.'

Budawanny was filmed on location on Clare Island, Co. Mayo. Exactly twenty years before, Bob Quinn had made a half-hour documentary on the daily lives of the inhabitants. It is interesting to compare the factual and fictional treatments of the same community.

Bob Quinn’s seminal documentary, deemed too disturbing for television viewers and not broadcast until 10 years after its completion, reveals life inside the Atlantis Commune at Burtonport, Co. Donegal where its members, The Screamers, led by English woman Jenny James, practised Reichian methods of extreme emotional self-expression.

Documentary about the Irish, dispelling the myth that they are all of pure Celtic heritage, but showing them as the mix of races they really are, and portraying the island not as the remote outpost of Europe most people think it is, but as a busy meeting place for seafaring traders of the Atlantic all through history.

During a conversation he has with a young priest, a bishop reveals to him a love story that turned his beliefs upside down. Remade as "The Bishop's Story" in 1994.

During a conversation he has with a young priest, a bishop reveals to him a love story that turned his beliefs upside down. Remade as "The Bishop's Story" in 1994.

The film follows Connemara emigrants in London who make a living fly-tipping. In the 1980s as Thatcher's entrepreneurial friends were demolishing buildings almost as fast as they were constructing new ones, tons of rubbish would be carried to designated sites outside the city causing chaotic and time-consuming traffic conditions (very unprofitable!). Enter the fly-tippers! these men and their lorries didn't waste time in traffic, they found the nearest empty space for dumping, the local authority had to clean up the mess, the builders and contractors turned a blind eye.

A poitín (moonshine) maker attempts to avoid the attentions of the Gardaí (police) in Connemara in the west of Ireland.

Inspired by Cliodhna Cussen, Cloch is an evocation of the art of stone-carving, drawing on the work of James McKenna and on the Kilkenny sculpture workshop of 1975. Bob Quinn said about the project, “The main aspect that interested me was the physical relationship between a person and inanimate material.”

Composer Roger Doyle is inspired by sounds from our environment to create new rhythms. Creating a musical soundscape Doyle uses the sounds around us including traffic, roadworks drilling, a ticking clock, plumbing a gunshot, lapping water and radio waves. Filmed as an episode for 'The Other Ways' six part series about environmental issues.

This documentary traces the emigration of 50 Irish families, mostly from Connemara, who were transported to Minnesota in 1880 in a misguided attempt to colonise middle America with Catholic families. Each of them was given 640 acres of Sioux land which, despite their primarily fishing background, they were required to farm to survive. Tragically, the experiment was doomed to failure, as some of the descendants of the original transplanted families describe.

A Documentary Tribute to Donal McCann. The basis of this documentary was the first and only public interview given by the actor. It happened at the Galway Film Fleadh in July 1998 where McCann enthralled the audience in the Town Hall with humour and frankness, his insights into art and life, success and failure, the mistakes that became masterstrokes, the performances that touched on the spiritual. Gerry Stembridge was his accomplice for the two hours. Bernardo Bertolucci, John Turturro, Pat Laffan, Lelia Doolan, Hugh Leonard, Gabriel Byrne, Sinéad Cusack, Neil Jordan, Joan O'Hara, Jim Sheridan, Sebastian Barry, Michael D. Higgins, Robert Ballagh all talk about the man they knew, admired and tried to understand. This is an attempt to reveal the personality that lay behind the art of one of the great actors of our time. Donal McCann died in July 1999, age 56. Ní bheidh a leithéid arís ann.

Bob Quinn's 1973 film about the Oireachtas na nGael festival in Conamara. This was the first film made by his production company Cinegael.

A documentary on a sean-nós singing seminar that took place in An Spidéal in Conamara. Filmed in 1981 by Bob Quinn for RTÉ's Aisling Gheal series.

The ConTempo Quartet from Bucharest has been Galway's Ensemble in Residence since 2003. As world-class musicians in the community, these four young artists have endeared themselves to adults and children alike with their skill and love for all music. They have won numerous international prizes, have performed with celebrated musicians such as John O'Conor, Hugh Tinney, Emma Johnson, the Amadeus and Vanbrugh quartets as well as the Galway Youth Orchestra an d The Galway Baroque Singers. One of their ongoing collaborations is with bosca player Extraordinaire Máirtín O' Connor combining with Garry O'Briain and Cathal Hayden. To witness them sharing tunes, classical and modern, avant garde and traditional, is a revelation. This 'Documenting the Arts' film shows that the classical/traditiona divide can dissolve in the hands of great musicians.

Luke is an alcoholic and a petty thief. Once a talented drummer, he is now busking on litter bins and strumming Rossini on his teeth. Estranged from his wife and son, he becomes obsessed with a girl that reminds him of his deceased daughter. The girl is a soprano in a choir, which Luke wheedles his way into and is given a chance to play percussion for them. The film is called a 'small opera' because operas are usually tragic, but Luke is a real statistic in modern Ireland. Audrey Corbett directs the exquisite music of the 70-strong Galway Baroque Singers

Bob Quinn's 1981 film on the decline of the Gaeltacht, written and presented by Desmond Fennell.

Last Spark Of The Gaeltacht (Laetha Deiridh na Gaeltachta) is a documentary programme about the Civil Rights Movement in the Gaeltacht which was established in 1969. Interviews with those who were active at the time, Deasún Fennell, Seosamh Ó Cuaig, Joe Steve Ó Neachtain and Minister Bobby Molloy, and the opinion of young people of today will be presented.

An artist attempts to draw but has difficulty reconciling what he sees with what he hears.

The story of Irish emigrants in the 50's the huge supportive communities they formed at the Galtymore Ballroom, Cricklewood, London. In 2005, after over fifty years of service, the Galtymore Ballroom was demolished. For many years the late Paddy Fahey, photographed the life of the emigrants in London and especially in the Galtymore Ballroom. His images are featured in The Emigrant Dance.

In 1896 James Brendan Connolly, son of emigrant parents from the Aran Islands won the first athletics* Gold Medal at the Athens Olympics. He also won silver for High Jump and bronze in the Long jump. He later set a world record for the long jump that stood for 13 years. A friend of president Teddy Roosevelt, he developed into a war correspondent and novelist. In his prime he was better known than Rudyard Kipling. This documentary celebrates his life.

A group of unruly Irish stage actors refuse the orders of their British director as he orchestrates a dramatic retelling of Eibhlín Dubh Ní Chonaill’s eighteenth-century keen about the the life and death of Irish rebel Art Ó Laoghaire.

A group of unruly Irish stage actors refuse the orders of their British director as he orchestrates a dramatic retelling of Eibhlín Dubh Ní Chonaill’s eighteenth-century keen about the the life and death of Irish rebel Art Ó Laoghaire.