Imagine Media Productions wins Audience Award at Thessaloniki International Documentary Film Festival for An Buachaill Gealgháireach
Date Posted: March 16, 2023
Imagine Media Productions is delighted to announce that An Buachaill Gealgháireach / The Laughing Boy / Το Γελαστό Παιδί has been presented with the much-coveted Audience Award at Thessaloniki International Documentary Film Festival.
The film tracks the evolution of a song about Michael Collins, written by Brendan Behan, as it journeys into the hearts and minds of the Greek people in a translation by Vassilis Rotas and set to music by one of the great composers of all time, Mikis Theodorakis.
Producer Sheila Friel says: “It is immensely gratifying to win an award always, but this is special since it comes from the audience. We were anxious, of course, bringing such a quintessential Greek film to Thessaloniki, given the sensitive political and cultural issues we are dealing with, but we got an amazing response there, a sense that we had, somehow, bridged the gap between two peoples, two cultures.”
Producer Kathryn Baird, whose original idea the film was, says: “We could not have hoped for a better response. A standing ovation is always heartening, but when the audience at the end began to sing To Yelasto Paidi, The Laughing Boy, I knew we had really hit the mark. This is the most important documentary festival in Europe, one of the key world festivals, and I am proud of all who worked to make this film possible. We are immensely grateful, also, to those who backed our film and made it possible -TG4, NI Screen, BAI, Culture Ireland and the Irish Embassy in Greece”.
Written and presented by poet Theo Dorgan, directed by award-winning Alan Gilsenan, An Buachaill Gealgháireach/The Laughing Boy/Το Γελαστό Παιδί in Irish, English and Greek, is available on the TG4 Player. The documentary was supported by Northern Ireland Screen’s Irish Language Broadcast Fund, the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland and the Embassy of Ireland (Athens).
