Cork film makes its debut in Los Angeles

Last month, a Cork filmmaker, Brian Benjamin Dwyer, saw his latest short film premiere at the LA Shorts International Film Festival.

Mír, which was filmed in Cork and Prague in the Czech Republic, is a moving tale of loss, exile, and the enduring power of music.

Dwyer says the film came about through his collaboration with the composer BK Pepper.

“Brian Pepper is a composer friend of mine. We have worked on a lot of projects together over the years,” said Dwyer.

“He was going to Prague to record some music and was bringing a cinematographer, Antimo, and asked if we could make a film out of it.

I developed the story, and Brian wrote a song specifically for it, which he recorded as part of his recording session and became the film’s focal point.

Pepper appears in the film as a conductor and composer, alongside Cork actors Ger Fitzgibbon and Sinéad O’Riordan.

The film sees a composer, Jirí Hájek, reconnecting with a piece of music he composed but was lost during World War II. Hájek is fictional, and Dwyer based his name on popular Czech names.

Dwyer says Fitzgibbon, a well-known Cork writer and former Lecturer of Drama at UCC, was the perfect choice to play older Jirí, while Pepper plays the composer as a younger man.

“Sinéad O’Riordan, who also stars in the film, suggested that Ger would be great for the part. When I put Brian’s picture side by side with Ger’s, I couldn’t believe how alike they were. Ger was perfect for the role.”

Dwyer says the only issue was working with the logistics of two actors playing the same character but being filmed in two locations. He says there was no need to worry about the logistics; Fitzgibbon easily took on the challenge.

“We met up a couple of times and chatted about things because he was going to film in Cork, and Brian was in Prague. Ger and Brian needed to be in sync, so I was able to give him the Prague footage.

We shot Ger’s scenes in about three hours in St Peter’s on North Main Street. It was a quick turnaround.

The film was self-funded, which Dwyer says can allow for more freedom.

“The biggest cost was Brian going over to Prague to record, but he was going over anyway, so it wasn’t an issue.

“When you apply for funding, you can spend a lot of time filling out forms and waiting to hear back, so you lose time. This film had a definite time frame. It had to be shot while Brian was recording in Prague, so we had to go.

“I do a lot of commercial work, which allows me to generate funds which, in turn, gives me the freedom to work in my own time-frame.”

Dwyer couldn’t go to Prague for the shoot but was able to direct remotely, thanks to a webcam and strong communication.

“I was in France teaching a film course, so I directed Brian remotely through a webcam in the recording studio,” he said.

“Antimo, our cinematographer, would send me videos of the camera angles so I could see everything and make decisions.

I am not sure if I would want to work like that often, but it was great that the tech was there to allow us to make a film remotely when we needed it. It opens up so many new ways of working.

Dwyer, who hails from Cork city, has taught in France for the last ten years. This is where he met his wife, Emily, an American actor who taught musical theatre and acting technique as part of the course. The couple formed a production company, Madra Mór, ten years ago.

“I teach an independent film course in France for over four weeks every year,” said Dwyer. “I’ve been doing it since 2014. The classes are held in a chateau in Normandy. It is a historic chateau that was used during World War II by the Nazis, and then the Allies had it as a HQ as well. Its history stretches back to Roman times before the chateau was built, so it is full of inspiration.”

The chateau inspired one of Dwyer’s earlier shorts, Padraig, which won an award at the IndieCork Festival in 2022 and followed the story of a quirky character, Padraig, who lives in a dilapidated but beautiful chateau.

Dwyer also won the prestigious David and Patsy Putnam Screenplay Award at Fastnet in 2021, which awarded him €20,000 to make a short film, Wireless, set in West Cork.

“The criteria for the award were that the film had to be shot in West Cork, and it had to be about Covid, or the new normal as it was at the time,” said Dwyer.

At first, the response to it was slow. I think people were reluctant to connect with it, perhaps because Covid was still too close to us, or maybe people were jaded. Recently, it has been doing really well at festivals.

Wireless is currently flying high, literally. You can watch the film on Aer Lingus flights to the States.

“My wife was flying to the States recently and took a picture of the film playing on the plane. It was crazy to see that!”

The 40-year-old filmmaker, who studied film at St John’s, hopes to move from short films to features. In the meantime, Mír will be on the festival circuit at festivals around the world.