Belly Flop - animated short film from Triggerfish Animation Studios on Vimeo.

Persistence pays off when an unashamed young girl learning to dive is unperturbed by a talented diver who steals the spotlight.

For some resources and activities to go along with this short click HERE.....Enjoy

We would like to say a big thank you to Mike Tate & Alice Black at Dundee Contemporary Arts and Discovery Film Festival, and also to Lindsey Law, the creator of the resource activities.

The Statues of Emo Court

Dunamaise Arts Centre is proud to present The Statues of Emo Court, a poem and short film by renowned poet Pat Boran. The film; which is a mindful reflection on the statues surrounding the beautiful grounds of Emo Court in County Laois; was commissioned by Dunamaise and funded by the Arts Council, and is now available to view on Pat Boran’s Youtube channel or click here.

Pat Boran, an award-winning Poet and member of Aosdána- the affiliation of creative artists in Ireland, who was born in Portlaoise, has held a number of esteemed positions within the world of literature and broadcasting and has published seven full-length collections of poetry. As Director of Dedalus Press for the past decade, he has edited a large number of poetry publications: more than a hundred books by fellow poets and close to a dozen significant anthologies of Irish writing, including the most recent in 2020 The Word Ark: A Pocket Book of Animal Poems, illustrated by Gaetano Tranchino, edited and prepared for press during lockdown.

Recently, Pat has been increasingly drawn to the possibilities presented by matching graphic forms with text, not only producing an ongoing series of PoemCards, but more recently exploring short poem-films. The Statues of Emo Court is another link in Pat’s exploration of poem-films and is the first of a series of films to be commissioned by Dunamaise Arts Centre.
“With lockdown and travel restrictions, we’ve all been seeing our local environments with fresh eyes, not just for what’s there in terms of amenities but for how they shape and make us what and who we are. We’re not all lucky enough to live close to a place as special as Emo Court (and indeed I now live about 60 km away and am currently prevented from visiting), but the alert eye can find meaning and consolation in the most unlikely of places”. That’s very much been the purpose of my recent work in making short poetry films, an activity I took up as a way to learn and do something new in these strange times”, Commented Pat.

“I’ve been visiting Emo Court since I can remember and have always been drawn to its statues, watching over us, as it seems, while we go about our business. In times of fear and worry (and most of us have never known anything of this level before) one looks for a way to slow down the beating of the heart and the racing of the mind in order to cope, and the statues seem to offer an example in that respect, having survived wars, hardships of all kinds, virtual abandonment etc over the years. The poem is, in a way, a tribute to Emo Court, but its real subject is heritage in general, the purpose, meaning and value of artistic endeavour and its very real contribution to our lives”, he added.

Sit back, relax and enjoy this beautiful meditation about The Statues of Emo Court.