Henry Glassie: Field Work

Open Call Award - € 150,000

Henry Glassie: Field Work from Director Pat Collins is a portrait of the celebrated folklorist and ethnologist Henry Glassie. Inspired by and featuring Glassie – ‘Field Work’, is an immersive and meditative film set among the rituals and rhythms of working artists in Brazil, Turkey, North Carolina and Ireland. The film displays the director’s trademark eye for details and the process of the artist’s work is awe-inspiring. Glassie’s subject is folklore and art but his deep abiding love for the people who create it resonates throughout the film. “I don’t study people” Glassie says, “I stand with people and I study the things they create.” Artists like the sculptor Edival Rosas from Salvador in Brazil describe their practice as one where body and spirit are integrated, where in Glassie’s words the creative act brings “a momentary fulfilment of what it is to be human.

File 1-Henry Glassie.jpg - Small

Folklands._1.1.14.jpg - Small

Folklands._1.1.8.jpg - Small

Pat Collins

Since 1999, Pat Collins has made over 30 films. His latest feature film ‘Henry Glassie: Field Work’ premiered at Toronto International Film Festival, 2019. The film is a magisterial portrait of the most renowned American folklorist and ethnologist Henry Glassie, funded by the Arts Council of Ireland and the Irish Film Board.

Pat’s feature film ‘Song of Granite,’ funded by the Irish Film Board, BAI, SODEC and Telefilm Canada, is based on the life of the traditional Irish singer Joe Heaney. It received its world premiere at SXSW 2017 and has screened at numerous international festivals. It was released in cinemas by Oscilliscope Distribution in the USA, Thunderbird Releasing in the UK and Canada, and Wildcard Distribution in Ireland. ‘Song of Granite’ was the Irish nomination for best Foreign Language Oscar 2018. Fionnuala Halligan, Chief Film Critic of ‘Screen International’ wrote “In an era of safe film-making, especially within the art-house sector, it’s rare to view a title as formally audacious as ‘Song of Granite.’” His 2012 Award Winning feature film ‘Silence’ received its international premier at London International Film Festival in 2013 and was distributed in Irish cinemas by Element Distribution and New Wave Films in the UK. He was co-director of the flagship historical 3 part series ‘1916’. The series was broadcast on RTÉ, BBC and PBS in America

Artist(s)

Henry Glassie Rosalvo Santanna Nilo dos Santos Samuel Rodrigues Edival Rosas Izaura Rosas Ahmet Şahin Mehmet Gürsoy Yusuf Sezer Kate Johnston Daniel Johnston Mark Hewitt

Dates

05 September 2019 - 15 September 2019
Toronto International Film Festival
01 February 2020
Cinémathèque Montreal

Partners

Screen Ireland South Wind Blows Harvest Films

Further Information

https://henryglassiefieldwork.com/

UPDATES

Future Plans

At the time of submitting our Final Report Form, Henry Glassie: Field Work had premiered at Toronto International Film Festival 2019. It has since screened at Cinémathèque Montreal (February 2020), Glasgow Film Festival (March 2020), Galway Film Fleadh (July 2020), IFI Documentary Festival (September 2020), InScience Film Festival (November 2020) Glimmerglass Film Days (November 2020), Festival International du Film sur l'Art (March 2021), and RiverRun International Film Festival (March 2021). It has won NTR Kennis van Nu Audience Award at InScience International Science Film Festival (November 2020, Best Irish Documentary at Galway Film Fleadh (July 2020), Best European Science Film at EURASF (July 2021). The Irish theatrical release was schedule for the 9th October, but due to the prolonged closure of cinemas we moved to a digital release on April 16th 2021 in Ireland and the UK. In Ireland, we worked with Film Distributors Eclipse Pictures, and in the UK we worked with New Wave Films. We then collaborated again with Eclipse Pictures for the Irish theatrical release in June and July 2021.

To maximise the reach of the digital release, we created two ad campaigns, one for pre promotion of the film (7 days) and a second after the film was released (28 days). Using specific clips from the film, the ads allowed us to reach specific audiences that we had identified to target. Accompanying content for the digital and theatrical releases included an interview between Henry Glassie and Fintan O’Toole, which was shown in both full-form, and shorter snippets disseminated via social media channels.

Postponements due to Covid-19 delayed the US screenings of Henry Glassie: Field Work at Glimmerglass Film Days and RiverRun International Film Festival which we worked to reschedule with our US distributor Jordan Mattos of Aspect Ratio. The rescheduled screenings took place November 2020 and March 2021 respectively.

Henry Glassie: Field Work is now currently available in Video on Demand in Ireland on iTunes & GooglePlay, in the UK on Amazon Prime, and in the US on iTunes & Projectr.tv.

Legacy

“Making this film on Henry Glassie was one of my first international documentaries – made about an international subject. Normally I make films based around Irish culture specifically. In terms of reach and impact this documentary reached a wider audience than some of my previous documentary films - being picked up by Grasshopper in the States and New Wave Films in the UK and Eclipse in Ireland. But the actual making of the film - the planning, the research and reading, the shooting and editing – and the close connection I made with Henry Glassie, has had a profound impact on my practise.” – Pat Collins

The Arts Council / An Chomhairle Ealaíon

Manage your application