GradX Film and Broadcasting

Amara Platt

I decided to join Film and Broadcasting in a eureka moment on the bus home from one of my Russian literature modules in technically my “first” year of university. It was February, raining, and I was miserable, that is before I had the thought: “Why haven’t I ever thought about going into film?”. I had videoed almost everything from a young age, begging my parents to give me turns on their iPads or phones so I could make stop motions, make my friends act out dramatic scripts at sleepovers or make inanimate objects regurgitating my favourite scenes from books. There had always been a curiosity in me about capturing the world. Luckily, TU Dublin provided the perfect outlet. Being half-Irish and half-Canadian I moved around a lot growing up. When you have people, you love and miss halfway across the globe no matter where you are, it can sometimes feel like you’re not from anywhere. Studying and making films makes this sometimes-lonely feeling feel like a unique perspective. During my studies, I have developed a specific interest in documentaries, the way they connect the differing perspectives of people and help to provide understanding for lives the audience may not be privy to. I am particularly interested in the ethics of allowing documentary subjects to have agency over them representation in the films they participate in. I hope going forward in my career, I never lose the curiosity and compassion for other people’s stories that inspire my need to make films. I hope to act as an example for why moments of sincere humanity during the process of filmmaking we are exactly why the film creators can never be replaced no matter how much technology advances.

Group / Individual Project title and your role: The Tricolour/ Director

The Tricolour Project

 

For my final year project, I pitched my idea for “The Tricolour” documentary. The Tricolour follows two Irish GAA players, Sherin and Gráinne, who play for the LGFA (clubs situated in Mayo) and for TU Dublin’s Women’s Gaelic Football Team (O’Connor Cup). Filming followed the girls through their O’Connor cup games (from the Quarter Final onward) and finished just after their latest victory, winning the O’Connor cup. This is not, however, a documentary about sport. Both Sherin and Gráinne describe from their perspective the unacceptable and often isolating experience of being a woman of colour playing a sport that predominantly upholds their white players, through the systems it’s built and its audience. The girls describe how their love and passion for the sport can be impacted by the microaggressions they experience surrounding bigoted beliefs about what really makes a GAA player and the underlying racial insinuations about who is really Irish. This timeline occurs simultaneously with the Tricolour protests in Dublin, which have shown a part of Irish society that poses the threatening question of who is and who is not allowed to feel a part of Ireland. This documentary seeks to celebrate the sports prowess and humanity of two players being forced into a 1 position of “representation” while also showing how smaller oversights in Irish clubs and organisations such as the LGFA when it comes to protecting their marginalised players, can enable the growth of bigger movements such as the Tricolour Protests.