Crossing | Irish Artist's Film Index

Crossing

Margaret Fitzgibbon


View this work

Work Link 1

Artist's biography

Margaret Fitzgibbon

Contributors

Mr Paddy Sheehan, the Dursey Cable Car Operator is the solo interviewee in this work

Description

Commissioned by Cork County Council and The Arts Council of Ireland, this short documentary film was shot entirely on super 8mm film. It explores the Dursey Cable Car - the only cable car in Ireland. Shot both on land and in transit from the cable car the film explore the links between place, identity and changing Ireland. The cable car is a piece of very basic technology that serves the community of the Island by ferrying people, livestock and goods several times a day 345 days of the year and seems to represent another time and place away from the rapid consumerism and modern technology associated with the Celtic Tiger. The voice over of Paddy Sheehan - the local cable car operator and a contemporary soundtrack aims to embody the sense of community and their strong sense of place and identity that the cable car in many ways is a metaphor of - suspended and swaying precariously back and forth over the short but treacherous three kilometres Dursey Straights below.


Screenings

  • 2022 — Permanent screening in the newly planned Visitors' Centre, Dursey Cable Car Site, Beara Pennisula, West Cork, Ireland

Reading


Images

Details
Title

Crossing

Year

2005

Tags
Dursey, place, identity, memory, Irish rural communities, Island life
Language

English

Duration

00:05:51

Original formats

Film 8mm / Super8mm

Screening formats

Digital HD

Aspect ratio

2.35:1

Colour

Colour

Supported by Kildare County Council Arts Service, and Visual Artists Ireland.
© 2016 - 2025 Irish Artist's Film Index. All rights reserved.