Myrid Carten’s documentary A Want In Her to receive World Premiere at IDFA
Posted: 18th October 2024
Fís Éireann/Screen Ireland is delighted to congratulate Myrid Carten, Inland Films and the team behind A Want In Her, which has been selected to make its World Premiere at the International Documentary Festival Amsterdam (IDFA) next month. The Irish documentary will screen in International Competition and is eligible for the festival's Best First Feature Award.
IDFA is the world’s biggest documentary festival. Thirteen films "that draw on and transcend deeply personal histories to reflect on our world today" were selected for the festival's International Competition, which was revealed earlier this week.
Filmmaker Myrid Carten has been filming since she was a child, and when her mother goes missing, she picks up her camera again in response to this new crisis. Her mother Nuala, once a successful social worker, suffered a mental breakdown after the sudden death of her own mother. She shuffles between rehab clinics, psychiatric hospitals, and occasionally the street.
Intimate, surprising, and often darkly funny conversations with her mother and other family members reveal the trials of loving someone who struggles with addiction and madness. Home videos from Myrid’s childhood and recordings of video installations from her current work as an artist form a playful blend of fictional and documentary elements, which compellingly capture the vicious cycle of care and rage.
Atmospheric Irish ballads about vagrant drinkers and dreamlike images of the neglected family home conjure the cultural and relational roots at play. In fresh and inventive ways, the film returns to a familiar, universal question: how can we be with those we love without losing ourselves?
A Want in Her is directed by Myrid Carten and produced by Tadhg O'Sullivan and Roisín Geraghty for Inland Films. Co-producers are Kat Mansoor for Snowstorm Productions and Eline van Wees for Basalt Film. The film is proudly supported by Fís Éireann/Screen Ireland, BFI Doc Society, Netherlands Film Fund and New Dawn Fund.
The 37th edition of IDFA takes place from 14th-24th November. More information about the festival can be found on their website.