No stopping Brakelight

Seamus Enright

“The way it was written was as a shortened feature-length, rather than a short story in the traditional sense. So if the backing and interest was there, there’s no reason it could not be developed further,” explains Brian Kelly, one half of the sibling duo behind Brakelight, a new short film shot, in part, in Ballyjamesduff and Virginia.

Brakelight was the subject of a private screening for crew, cast and their families at Dublin’s IFI last week, and has already been accepted for screening at a film festival in Italy later this year.
Brian says he and brother Robert have been delighted with the response to date, and are hoping to channel that positivity surrounding Brakelight to promoting the film to make as much of the opportunity as possible.
The movie follows a brave young scout named Sean (Seafra O’Rourke) who plucks up the courage to seek help in thwarting a kidnapping, and an eagle eyed older man Archie (Degnan Geraghty) who spots the cry for help, but who is facing his own difficulties with son Orín (Jonathan Barrett). Bravelight thrillingly converges where the scenario drags both into what becomes a dangerous game of cat and mouse with kidnapper Barry, played by Richard Mason.
“It’s inpsired by classical spirit of film development in that we try and keep the full story from the viewer for as long as possible,” explains Brian, whose background includes work on up to eight feature-length films, including at Don Bluth’s ‘Sullivan Bluth Studios’ in Dublin on Space Jam and All Dogs Go to Heaven. Brian also spent several years thereafter teaching TV production at Ballyfermott College. Brakelight represents his first foray into short film making in several years.
The tale of the film came about when Brian and Robert were driving to Cavan from Dublin in late 2016, and developed over the Spring. They moved to full production in March 2017, filming on location in the south of the county as well as Dublin.
Additional production meanwhile took place at Windmill Studios, while the score to the film was composed by the legendary composer, conductor, orchestrator Jeremy Leidhecker.
“We’ve been delighted with the response so far, so we’ll see where it goes from there,” says Dublin-native Brian, who now lives in Ballyjamesduff with his family.
“We’re delighted with how it turned out so we’ll see where we can take it from here, whether that’s entering discussions with the Irish Film Board or whatever. But it’s exciting and we’re delighted with how it turned out.”