BAF 2003 12th - 15th November 2003

The Bradford animation Festival 2003 screened a special two-part retrospective of the Irish Film Board's short film funding schemes.

From An Evil cradling (35mm print) screened at the above event - Irish Film Board Shorts 2 - Wednesday, November 14, 2003 - 20:30 - Cubby Broccoli Cinema, Bradford, UK.

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From An Evil Cradling is an adaptation of ‘Music’, the seventh chapter of Brian Keenan's autobiographical 1992 best-seller, An Evil Cradling.

In 1986, Brian Keenan, an English Literature professor from Belfast, Northern Ireland, decided to take a break from his native city. He took up a position in the American University in Beirut, Lebanon. Scarcely two weeks after his arrival, he was kidnapped by fundamentalist Muslims and was subsequently imprisoned in a solitary confinement compression chamber, six feet long and four feet wide. “On the floor was a foam mattress. With the mattress laid out I had a pacing stage of little more than a foot’s width.” Brian was to spend much of his five years incarceration in this windowless tomb.

‘Music’ is by turns harrowing and inspirational. Deprived of even the most basic human needs, and in an increasingly hopeless situation, Brian’s mind began to unhinge – however, it wasn’t until his flights of imagination began to blur the margins between fantasy and reality that his despair began to take real hold on him.

Andrew Kavanagh, the co-director and producer of From An Evil Cradling, came up with the idea of adapting the book for animation. “I read the book in 1994 and was hugely inspired by Brian’s mental triumph over seemingly insurmountable odds.”

 

Reflections in time - the opening shot of The Hall sequence

 

It was by chance that in 1998 Andrew Kavanagh met Brian Keenan in the IFC, the Dublin cinema in which the short was to premiere a year later. After a brief discussion Brian agreed to get involved with the project. The funding for the film came from the Frameworks scheme sponsored by the Irish Film Board, RTE and The Irish Arts Council.

With the funding in place the next challenge was to put a creative team together that could realise the project. Andrew Kavanagh’s production company, Kavaleer Productions, co-produced the film with Dublin-based animation company, Rocket Animation Ltd.

Andrew teamed up with fellow filmmaker, Keith Foran, who co-directed the film. “To articulate such a text was an incredibly daunting challenge,” says Keith, “so we went on the hunt for the best in the Irish animation industry. The core team comprised Andrew Kavanagh and Keith Foran (co-directors, producers and animation supervisors), Owen Fitzpatrick (art direction and layout), Gregory Magee (score), and Rónán Ó Muirgheasa (editor). A large team of talented animators and post-production personnel was also assembled.

 

The 'From An Evil Cradling' poster image.

 

Owen Fitzpatrick, of Rocket Animation, who undertook the difficult task of art directing the film says, “For me one of the toughest challenges on From An Evil Cradling was trying to visualise the sheer horror and emotion of Brian Keenan’s experiences as a prisoner in Beirut. Employing Brian’s point of view throughout the film allowed us to ‘bend’ reality and so visualise both the horrific and fantastical as Brian might have experienced it during his darkest moments.”

Gregory Magee, the young composer of Under the Hawthorn Tree, The Countess Cathleen, The Nest and The Angelic Organ, agreed to do the score: “In his description of the visions he’d experienced, Brian says he’d heard all of the music he’d ever loved or half-remembered, all playing at the same time. This was the hardest part of the film to score, to achieve a balance of sound which would be cacophonic but still lead smoothly into the final act.”

From An Evil Cradling has been screened at many of the world's leading film festivals - Annecy 2000, World Expo 2000 (Hannover), London Irish Film Festival (1999), Foyle Film Festival (1999), Manchester International Short Film Festival (2000), Welsh International Film Festival (2000), Galway Film Fleadh (1999), Cork Film Festival (1999) and The Dublin Film Festival where it premiered in March 1999.

Pre-production sketches and production artwork for From An Evil Cradling can be viewed on the following link:

From An Evil Cradling pre-production/production

 

From An Evil Cradling screened at Australian Festivals - Summer 2002

From An Evil Cradling screened at The Melbourne International Animation Festival 2002 (MIAF). The festival ran from 25-30 June 2002 and then moved on to Adelaide from 4-7 July and Sydney from 9-14 July. It showcased the best of recent animation as well as some special themed programs. Malcolm Turner of MIAF said 'We are delighted to be able to extend this formal invitation for "From An Evil Cradling" to be screened at these festivals.

 

FROM AN EVIL CRADLING

BASED ON THE BOOK 'AN EVIL CRADLING' BY BRIAN KEENAN

A FILM BY ANDREW KAVANAGH AND KEITH FORAN

WRITTEN AND NARRATED BY BRIAN KEENAN

ANIMATION SUPERVISION BY ANDREW KAVANAGH/KEITH FORAN

MARK FLOOD/SCOTT MCDONNELL/SHANE O'FARRELL

SOUND DESIGN BY TONY MCGUINNESS

FINAL MIX BY PAT STOKES/LIME STREET SOUND

ONLINE EDITOR ALAN SULLIVAN/WINDMILL LANE LTD.

MUSIC COMPOSED AND ARRANGED BY GREGORY MAGEE

ART DIRECTION BY OWEN FITZPATRICK

EDITED BY RÓNÁN Ó MUIRGHEASA

ASSOCIATE PRODUCERS CAROLINE DUNN/STUART SWITZER

PRODUCED AND DIRECTED BY ANDREW KAVANAGH/KEITH FORAN

 

FUNDED BY BORD SCANNÁN na hÉIREANN/THE IRISH FILM BOARD

RADIO TELIFÍS ÉIREANN

THE ARTS COUNCIL

 

COPYRIGHT© KAVALEER PRODUCTIONS/FUNDING PARTNERS 1999

KAVALEER PRODUCTIONS

IN ASOCIATION WITH

ROCKET ANIMATION

 

rocket@cocotelevision.ie

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