Shem The Penman Sings Again released to coincide with James Joyce’s 75th anniversary
Padraig Trehy's début feature film, Shem The Penman Sings Again, will begin a limited theatrical run with a special screening in the IFI on January 13th - marking the 75th anniversary of the death of James Joyce, before going on to screen at the Triskel Christchurch in Cork, QFT Belfast and the Town Hall Theatre as part of the Galway Film Society's January program. Access Cinema are also offering it to their members for 2016.
Film Ireland described the feature as "...innovative, highly imaginative, and impressively realized", with the talent on-screen led by actors Frank Prendergast, Louis Lovett and Hugh O'Conor.
Shem creates a fictional archive of the famous friendship between writer James Joyce and extraordinary tenor John McCormack. Through a combination of archive recordings and imaginary radio broadcasts, the narrative connects the actual friendship of Joyce and McCormack with the relationship between Shem the Penman and Shaun the Post inFinnegans Wake.
Following its world premiere at the Galway Film Fleadh last July, Shem's Irish festival run culminated in a sell-out special screening in the Everyman Theatre as part of the 60th Cork Film Festival in November.
Director Pádraig Trehy will do an intro and Q&A in Dublin, Cork and Galway.
Tickets can be booked for the IFI screening here.
Further details and trailer can be found at shemthepenman.com.
Produced by Rossa Mullin of Pooleen Productions, Shem the Penman Sings Again was funded by Bord Scannán na hÉireann/ the Irish Film Board.
ABOUT SHEM THE PENMAN SINGS AGAIN
Shem The Penman deals with the actual and much fabled friendship of James Joyce and John McCormack. The world-renowned writer and the extraordinary tenor first met in 1904 when Joyce still had hopes of becoming a professional singer himself. They reconnected in Paris in the 1920's and Joyce was to use his first hand knowledge of McCormack to create the character of Shaun the Post in his famously ‘unreadable' final novel, Finnegans Wake. As Joyce struggled with the book, he portrayed himself in it as Shaun's lowly twin brother, Shem.
Joyce's twin obsessions, singing and literary experimentation, flow through the film as his and McCormack's encounters are reimagined in a variety of early cinematic styles, interrupted by four short films-within-the-film charting the exploits of Shem and Shaun. As Joyce's eyesight fails, the narrative is carried by a mix of archive recordings and imaginary radio broadcasts, giving us an emotional connection to an increasingly isolated Joyce.