Hope in Tír na nÓg
MALCOM WILLIS IS THE DIRECTOR OF A NEW FEATURE LENGTH DOCUMENTARY ON THE STORY OF THE TÍR NA NÓG ORPHANAGE IN TANZANIA. FERGUS DENNEHY SPEAKS TO HIM ABOUT THIS NEW FILM.
THE story of how one Tralee woman was inspired to set up her very own orphanage and school in Tanzania is the story behind a new feature length documentary set to première this weekend as part of the 2019 Kerry Film Festival.
‘Kilimanjaro Mama’, simply put is the story of Tralee woman Louise Quill, a primary school teacher who, after travelling to Tanzania as a volunteer in 2006, saw the vital need for a facility that would provide a family unit for the orphaned and abandoned children of Tanzania.
This was the beginning of what would eventually become the Tír na nÓg – a facility created to alleviate the suffering of the Tanzanian children and provide them with not only a home but a solid education as well.
The film is directed by Kerry’s Malcolm Willis and produced by Tralee’s Brian Hurley. It will première at Killarney Cinema this Saturday, October 19, at 6pm.
“I met someone who knew about it and they were telling me the story. I think we’ve all got this urge to help in some way and I’ve always thought that I’d like to help out an organisation like this in my own way,” explains Malcolm.
“I eventually got the chance to speak to Louise. I told her that I could self-finance, that I would come out and do a short promo for her website and maybe a mini-documentary for film festivals. This was my initial thinking.”
What Malcolm initially envisaged as a small promo video quickly developed into something much bigger.
Thanks to a successful GoFundMe page and sponsorship from a number of local businesses - including a substantial donation from the Bon Secours in Tralee - the seeds for a longer, feature-length documentary were sown.
“I soon had enough money for a sound guy and another camera guy and I was able to pay for the whole team to go out there,” Malcolm explains.
After connecting with Brian Hurley, an experienced film-maker in his own right, they had what the pair now joke was “the most expensive cup of coffee ever”. A simple meeting for advice turned into Brian bringing his contacts, knowledge and vast experience on board as a producer.
“Brian has been fantastic. He came out to Tanzania and ended up conducting a lot of the Tanzanian interviews. He played a massive part and has simply been fantastic,” Malcolm continues.
And with all the pieces in place, the stage was set for filming.
Over the course of two weeks in April, Malcolm and his team were in Tanzania where they witnessed firsthand the work being done on the ground by Louise and her team. And they were suitably impressed.
“It’s an amazing place. It’s a mixture of Muslim and Christian people. They seem to get on very well. There’s no sort of signs off any outward hostilityty towards anyone. anyone They’re a very friendly people.
“It was very important for us while filming to not only get across the trials and the tribulations of setting up the orphanage but how it’s actually run – where the money goes, who spends the money. These details are important as they are the things that people are going to ask,” he says.
“While filming we wanted to make sure that people were made aware of the fact that every single penny given to this orphanage goes into the kids. It’s not going to air fares or staff or anything like that.
“Essentially, the film has interviews with the children, interviews with Louise and
We W wanted to make sure while filming fip that people are aware that th every single penny goes to the kids.
the volunteers and staff at the orphanage. There are interviews with social workers from a different organisation who laid out what goes on over there, what the problems are, where the children come from,” he continues.
“We visited shanty towns where a lot of the children would come from. They are, in our understanding of the word, orphans. But some of the children, they would have been abused, severely abused by their parents, while others actually would have one parent alive who just can’t afford to keep the child.
One area of work that is undertaken by the orphanage is trying to maintain, within reareason, a link between the chichild and where they come frofrom.
“When we were there, we actactually took a couple of the kidkids back to meet parents or memeet relatives. They were going inggoing back anyway so we tagged aloalong to witness it,” Malcolm revreveals.
NNow, just a few days out frofrom the première of the film and having had a chance to refreflect on what will surely be a career and life-defining ingdefining moment, does Malcolm feefeel proud of the finished product? pro““Absolutely. I’m very proud of it. I think it’s turned out really well. It’s my first step into the feature world. It’s a completely different ball game from having a film that’s six or seven minutes long to something that’s an hour,” he adds with a smile.
See ‘ Kilimanjaro Mama’ in Killarney Cinema at 6pm this Saturday; a second screening will take place in Tralee on Thursday, November 21, which will act as a fundraiser for the orphanage itself.
To work with Malcolm on a film, contact his film company ‘icypeaksmedia’ on Facebook.