Irish Language Production & Queer Filmmaking

Sunday 13.09 at 15:00 • Civic Trust House • 90 min • Free

Hosted by Hugh O’Reilly Fitzgerald - Featuring: Ciara Foran, Andrea Foley, Aoife Commons

BOOK TICKETS

Hugh O’Reilly Fitzgerald will talk with three emerging film professionals about the various ways to break into the film industry, how to work in Irish and working with a focus on queer themes and as queer artists.

Parts of the talk will be conducted in Irish.

Hugh O’Reilly Fitzgerald is a Cork native and Assistant Producer who cut his teeth in Belfast’s thriving Irish-language media scene. A graduate of the University of Galway’s MA Cleachtas Gairmiúil sna Meáin he has worked on a wide variety of projects from health documentary ‘Slán go Feoil’ for RTÉ to children’s programme ‘M’Ainm Mo Scéal’ for Cúla4. He developed and assistant produced original series ‘Croí na Féile’ for TG4.

Ciara Foran is a filmmaker and photographer from Killarney, Co. Kerry. After studying Film and Screen Media at UCC, she went on to complete the Ard Dioplóma i Léiriú Teilifíse agus Na Meán with Nemeton TV/SETU, where she worked through the medium of the Irish language. She has since worked as a cinematographer on Irish language productions and has written and directed her own fiction films as Gaeilge. Her recent work focuses on the thriller genre, with an interest in the blurred boundaries between reality, myth and legend within Irish storytelling. Alongside her filmmaking, she has also photographed queer and Irish language arts events, including Litreacha in Cork. She hopes to continue bringing together her passion for visual storytelling and the Irish language.

Andrea Foley is a filmmaker and animator whose work is rooted in a lifelong love of visual storytelling and the shared experience of cinema. Growing up with dyslexia, film and television became a source of comfort, connection and a way of accessing stories when other forms felt closed off. This shaped a passion for combining art, animation and storytelling. After years working in animation Andrea moved to live action production. Her short films Peadar ar Thine and Coraigh Trí Thine, each celebrating the work of drag artists, both received awards in 2025. Most recently, Coraigh Trí Thine was shown as the pre-feature short for the feature film screening of Rupaul's STOP! THAT! TRAIN! at GAZE LGBTQIA Film Festival.

Aoife Commons is an Irish actor from Wicklow, represented by Red Kite Talent, and a graduate of MTU Cork School of Music’s BA in Theatre & Drama. Her screen credits include Awakened, Homofónia, Yellow, Capturing Albatross, Stalker and Gillyfish, which featured in Priosma’s New Irish Short Programme.